Race, Gender, Work, and Choice: An Empirical Study of the Lack of Interest Defense in Title VII Cases Challenging Job Segregation

Abstract

More than twenty-five years after the enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the American workforce remains remarkably segregated by race and sex. Job segregation is not a separate-but-equal arrangement; minorities and women are concentrated in work offering lower wages, less status, and fewer opportunities for advancement. In fact, job segregation is the primary evil the statute was meant to address. Title VII promised to "break down old patterns of segregation and hierarchy, and to integrate minorities and women into more highly-rewarded employment.