A recent study outlined in the Harvard Business Review found that while nearly all employers say the\y want a diverse and inclusive staff, they remain less likely to hire women and people of color. The researchers, from the University of Pennsylvania, asked hiring managers from prestigious firms to participate in a study in which they would receive about 40 different resumes and rate them on a scale of 1-10 how likely they were to hire someone based off them. To add weight to their decisions, these hiring managers would then have job seekers directed to them based upon their stated preferences.

The researchers, first, found that 90 percent of subjects said that increasing gender and racial diversity was a factor they considered positively in their hiring. The managers then received resumes with randomly assigned characteristics (e.g., GPA, major, work experience, extracurricular activities, and skills) as well as a name that is indicative of race and gender.

What they found was that despite their stated goals around diversity, the managers' decisions showed "no aggregate preference for minority or female candidates" and, indeed, many still showed signs of bias. For instance, while a prestigious internship on a resume increased candidates' ratings, women or minorities' boost was half that of a white man's. It also found that managers did not value summer jobs taken in the junior year that might be typical for a college student trying to make do (e.g. barista, waitress, Target cashier), which the study authors said is another source of inequity, given the demographics of those who can afford to skip the summer job to take an unpaid internship.

The study further noted that the issue was worse among those in science, technology, engineering and math fields: among STEM majors, to get the same rating as a white male with a 3.75 GPA, a minority or female candidate needed a 4.0.

The researchers speculated that one reason for this difference between stated goals and concrete action is that they assume other companies want diverse candidates too and so believe that they're more likely to have gotten prestigious internships (when this was not the case) and are less likely to accept a job offer due to being courted by other firms. It seems to be a case where people assume everyone else is doing something already, so they don't need to try so hard themselves. The problem is when everyone makes that assumption, no one does anything.