A report we created took together evidence and found that men generally face higher rates of discrimination in hiring when it comes to male vs. female names [1].

Here are the research highlights:

A male name is 13% less likely to be chosen than a female name for rental housing, and it goes as big of an anti-male gender gap as 33% in low-population areas for black male names vs. black female names (46% callback rate for men, and 79% callback rate for women) and male Muslim names are 50% less likely to be housed than female Muslim names. Comparatively, male names are less likely to be hired in female dominated jobs, and are 3.2% less likely to be hired than in blind hiring (vs. the 2.9% advantage women have). One study found that women were hired 2% less based off of their name, but it appeared to be biased, due to the fact that it only used 9 names and did not differentiate between lower class and higher class names. (If you look at the study you'll find that a male name, Jose Vazquez, had the highest negative response rate [13%] and nearly the lowest positive response rate [81%]. [2]) Female names are also possibly discriminated against in male-dominated jobs, as it depends on the job, for example a heavy-lifting job may be biased against them, but a STEM one is not (as they are biased towards 2:1 over EQUALLY or SLIGHTLY MORE qualified male candidates [3]).

[1] Adams, Drew K. (September 17, 2021). Report: Certain Names Lead to Discrimination in Housing, Hiring, and More. American Association for Rights and Equality (AARE). Retrieved from https://aareassociation.wordpress.com/2021/09/27/report-certain-names-lead-to-discrimination-in-housing-hiring-and-more/

[2] CW Headley. (April 17, 2019). The surprising names that are most likely to get a callback from hiring managers. Ladders. Retrieved from https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/the-surprising-names-that-are-most-likely-to-get-a-callback-from-hiring-managers

[3] Williams, Wendy M., and Stephen J. Ceci. (2015). National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track. PNAS, 112(17): 5360-5365. Retrieved from https://www.pnas.org/content/112/17/5360. PDF: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/17/5360.full.pdf