Elizabeth Hirsh University of British Columbia

 Civil Rights Act of 1964 established U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce law  Responsibility of workers to identify discrimination and mobilize their rights by filing formal claims with EEOC and in court  Before proceeding to court, workers must file with EEOC  ~80,000-90,000 EEOC charges per year

I. Charge Process II. Data Structure III. Getting access - Confidentiality agreements - Getting to know the data IV. Matching data sources V. Research applications VI. Future research

Data files: 1. Charge - Contains basic information on charging party and respondent (targeted employer) - Basic information on law cited (Title VII, EPA, ADEA, ADA) 2. Allegation - One to many match to charge file (i.e., each charge can contain multiple “allegations” of discrimination - Contains details on the basis (sex, race, national origin, religion, age, disability) and employment issue (hire, promotion, termination, pay, harassment, etc)

3. Actions - Describes all actions taken by investigators as allegation/charge moves through EEOC remedial process (i.e., mediation, conciliation, reasonable cause determination, notice of right to sue) 4. Benefits - Describes any benefits awarded including monetary, nonmonetary, policy changes, etc. 5. Litigation (?)

1. Confidentiality agreement with EEOC - Under intergovernmental personnel act - Become an unpaid employee of the EEOC 2. Getting to know the data - Becoming an unpaid intern at an EEOC district office, investigation unit - Processed charges from intake through conciliation - Investigators’ employee manual as “codebook”

 Matching to EEO-1 Data (or other survey data)  Recently, intake officers assigning EEO-1 numbers to charges/allegations as they come in  Historically, no connection between EEOC charge data and EEO-1 employer data  Using natural language search in SQL to look up and extract charges for various samples of EEO-1 reporting firms/establishments  60% success rate  40% manually look up in charge data by name and zip code  Matching to legal data sources  Tracing high-profile litigation back to original EEOC charge(s)

Project 1: Organizational origins and impact of charges  Using matched sample of 2166 EEO-1 reporting establishments to 10, 820 charges, examined contexts that give rise to charges, charge processing/outcomes, and impact of charges on workplace segregation  Examined workplace conditions that lead to charges, charge outcomes, and impact on workplace equality (Hirsh 2008; Hirsh and Kornrich 2008; Hirsh 2009)

Project 2: Diversity-oriented HR Practices and Charges (with Julie Kmec)  Surveyed 300 EEO-1 reporting establishments about HR practices, matched survey data to charges  Examining effect of HR policies on charges and outcomes (as well as substantive measures of inequality)

Project 3: EEO lawsuits and legal mobilization  Examining 500 high-profile lawsuits, interviewing subset of plaintiffs about legal mobilization/experiences  Extracting original charge data for these lawsuits

Other applications: - Laura Beth Nielsen, Robert Nelson, Ryon Lancaster, Ellen Berrey and colleagues match litigation to charge data (Nielsen, Nelson, Lancaster 2010) - Susanne Bruyere, Sarah Von Schrader and colleagues at Cornell’s Employment and Disability Institute analyzing trends in ADA charges

 EEO/charge “report cards” or “compliance record” for industries (or even firms)  Matching charge data to geographical data  “Reverse” discrimination charges  Focus on retaliation charges and intra/intergroup relations  Ethnography of charging/resolution process