Intersecting Biases: Does Veteran Status Overcome Disability and Gender Disadvantages in the Employment Landscape?

Mason Ameri, Terri Kurtzberg, Lisa Schur, Meera Adya, Adrienne Colella and Douglas Kruse

ILR Review, 2025, vol. 78, issue 4, 614-644

Abstract: Using field, lab, and qualitative methodologies, the authors explore how veteran status influences employer reactions to job applicants and how veteran status intersects with disability and gender. First, a randomized field experiment examined responses to applications for more than 6,000 customer service jobs. Next, a lab experiment investigated an applicant with a disability to assess the effects of veteran status on interviewing. A third quantitative and qualitative study explored people’s perceptions on the topics of veteran status, disability, and gender as they relate to hiring. Results show that veterans are favored over nonveterans for hiring (based primarily on greater trust in their skills and training). These results hold for candidates who are veterans with disabilities, demonstrating that positive reactions to some identities may help mitigate the stigma associated with others. These findings shed light on our understanding of intersectionality, specifically which elements may be dominant when multiple identities collide.

Keywords: disability; veteran status; gender; intersectionality; hiring bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00197939251318286 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:78:y:2025:i:4:p:614-644

DOI: 10.1177/00197939251318286

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().