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Discrimination

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Discrimination

by metallicafan » Sat Apr 28, 2012 6:17 pm
Company Spokesperson: Charges that our corporation has discriminated against women in its hiring and promotion practices are demonstrably untrue. In fact, statistics show that greater than sixty percent of our corporation's employees are women.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most relevant in evaluating the argument above?
A. What is the average tenure, or length of employment, among the company's women employees?
B. What percentage of the company's employees in higher-level management positions are women?
C. What percentage of employees in competing companies are women?
D. How has the percentage of women employees at the company changed over time?
E. Is the chief executive officer of the company a man or a woman?

I think that the answer should be C. Because if the percentage of women employees in competing companies is higher than in our company, we could claim that our company is discriminating women in comparison with the other companies.
However, the OA is B. The OE says that the fact that few women could work in management positions is an indicator of discrimination. But, how can we be sure about that? Maybe women in that city are not well qualified.
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by gb » Sat Apr 28, 2012 6:27 pm
Problem with C is that we have no info about the competing companies. Moreover, what if the competing companies have even worse hiring and promotion practices. So, if you compare your company with them your company will look relatively good but that does not prove that you are not discriminating.
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by theperegrine » Sat Apr 28, 2012 7:52 pm
The fact that 60% of the employees are women addresses the fact that the company does not discriminate against women. So the spokesperson is right.
What remains to be evaluated is the promotional aspect which can be done by checking the % of women in higher management positions.
Hence, B.

I agree with gb that comparing with competitors might make you look better/worse in comparison with peers. But that does not (contra)indicate that you are not discriminating.
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by vikram4689 » Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:10 pm
Usually in evaluate question, the correct answer will be the one that says YES or NO to the conclusion when opposite responses are provided to option(or question in option).

A. What is the average tenure, or length of employment, among the company's women employees?
Whatever the length of TENURE is (short / long) - None of the option proves that company intends discriminating in hiring/promotion policies against women

B. What percentage of the company's employees in higher-level management positions are women?
If very few are in higher mgmt that means most of 60% are in lower position hence company is discriminating in directly hiring women in higher mgmt OR promoting existing employees to higher mgmt.

C. What percentage of employees in competing companies are women?
We are not concerned about competing companies, what if all companies are discriminating

D. How has the percentage of women employees at the company changed over time?
Clearly, we cannot say anything about promotion policy using above option. In fact this option is irrelevant because % of women is not concern, it is already 60% so it is more about promotions and that we cannot derive from this option
E. Is the chief executive officer of the company a man or a woman?
CEO's gender cannot provide any justification
Last edited by vikram4689 on Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by ice_rush » Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:37 pm
How is choice (B) tied to hiring? None of the answer choices talk about both hiring and promotion practices of the company.

What is the source of this question?
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by justharsha » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:35 am
My choice is B.

There are 2 aspects to the argument - Hiring practices and Promotion practices
The first part is answered in the statement made by the spokesperson. The second part still needs to be evaluated. The answer to B will help in answering that as well.
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