More than the sum of its parts: An intersectional perspective on Moss and Tilly’s “Stories employers tell”
A blogpost by Sabine Boesl
Philip Moss and Chris Tilly demonstrate in their book “Stories employers tell”1 that racial discrimination is a systemic feature of hiring decisions and labor market outcomes in the US (which has hardly declined since then and is not limited to the US).2 Moss and Tilly also highlight the differential treatment of men and women in hiring, but their study is clearly focused on racial discrimination. In this blog post, I am interested in the gender dimension and, more specifically, an intersectional perspective. An intersectional approach looks at how race and gender operate in tandem and produce unique forms of discrimination that are non-additive.3 In other words, the interplay of race and gender forms distinct patterns of discrimination that cannot be understood by looking at each dimension in isolation.
Gender can counteract or reinforce racial discrimination in hiring
Moss and Tilly show that employers mostly preferred White over Black applicants and women over men in hiring. For example, Black applicants, especially Black men, were described with negative stereotypes, such as poor work ethic or being threatening or criminal. Hence, White women were the most preferred applicant group, while Black men were the least preferred. Comparing Black women and White men produces mixed findings and shows that race and gender may operate in non-linear ways. According to Moss and Tilly, the differences can be explained by occupational gender segregation. In other words, what applicant group is preferred depends on the task to be performed. For example, Black women were preferred for jobs that require talking on the phone with customers or doing computer work, but White men were preferred for jobs that require doing math.4
These findings challenge the assumption that racial discrimination alone can explain hiring patterns. Rather, gender can counteract or worsen racial discrimination in hiring, depending on employers’ perception of which tasks suit which gender. In the case of Black men, race and gender mutually reinforce each other and produce an “interlocking system of oppression”.5 In the case of Black women, their gender allows them to counter the stigma associated with being Black – paradoxically by complying with gendered and racial norms.
Being hired does not mean that stereotypes diminish

Hiring decisions are racialized and gendered. Illustration by @Mohamed_hassan, Pixaby: https://pixabay.com/vectors/hiring-recruitment-job-opportunity-9259870/
As mentioned, employers prefer Black women over White men for tasks that they consider to be especially suitable for women, e.g., customer service. This way, Black women counter racial discrimination while reinforcing gender stereotypes. Moreover, Black women are more likely to be perceived as single mothers, compared to White women.6 Thus, employers may hold positive perceptions about Black women (e.g., single mothers as especially resilient and hard-working) without changing the fact that they see Black and White women differently.
Sylvie Aprile, Delphine Diaz, Alexandre Dupont, and Antonin Durand have described similar paradoxical effects for women in 19th century European exile: They did not transgress gender boundaries but were involved in activities typically associated with female gender roles, such as household and care activities. For instance, by organizing salons — social events at the intersection of the private and public spheres — women could participate in political activities without transgressing gender stereotypes too visibly. In other words, complying with gender norms allowed women to gain a certain degree of political agency. Exiled women were combining and negotiating multiple identities at once.7
What does this mean for applicants’ identities?
First, identity is a positioning of multiple identities,8 such as racial, gendered, or professional identities in the case of Black female workers (or female and political subjects, as described above). Second, these identities are context-specific and can be contradictory. As shown, employers perceive Black women differently in customer-facing roles than in more male-dominated roles. In one context, femininity is valued; in the other, it is de-valued. To be successful, individuals have to navigate these expectations, which may come with uncertainty and emotional anxiety.9 Third, identity is shaped by interactions with others,10 such as employers who hold racialized and gendered stereotypes. As the example of Black women seeking employment shows: These interactions are not merely individual; they are embedded in institutional systems characterized by power relations, in which employers’ stereotypes determine who gets access to jobs.
Conclusion: Gender and race as borders on the labor market
An important finding is that gender can counteract or worsen racial discrimination in hiring. On one hand, Black men have multiple barriers to overcome, as employers devalue both their race and gender in customer service roles. On the other hand, Black women experience increased labor market opportunities, as employers prefer women for customer-service roles. From an intersectional perspective it is important to not view race and gender in isolation. Rather, employers have distinct perceptions of Black women and Black men. For example, compared to White women, Black women are more likely to be perceived as single mothers, and because of this as more hard-working or resilient. Another important finding relates to identities: Considering Black workers as gendered also reveals their multiple, and sometimes contradictory identities. This makes our understanding more complete (and thereby realistic), and yet more complex. Using an intersectional perspective means rethinking how social categories combine in ways that produce effects beyond merely summing each dimension. This perspective may feel uncommon at first, but it is a worthwhile one, as this essay has attempted to show.
Sabine Boesl is a PhD researcher at the Human Resource Management and Employment Relations department at the University of Innsbruck. Her research focuses on the impact of language used in job advertisements on the application behavior of women and men, as well as the challenges recruiters encounter when attempting to modify these texts. With a background in management, she is aware of the leverage that employers have in achieving equality and the compromises that are required for this endeavor.
Diesen Artikel zitieren: Boesl, Sabine: More than the sum of its parts: An intersectional perspective on Moss and Tilly’s “Stories employers tell” in: Migration and Belonging, 10/10/2025, https://belonging.hypotheses.org/6182 [Abrufdatum].
- Moss, Philip/Tilly, Chris: Stories employers tell: Race, skill, and hiring in America. New York 2001, 3. [↩]
- Quillian, Lincoln/Midtbøen, Arnfinn: Comparative Perspectives on Racial Discrimination. In: Hiring: The Rise of Field Experiments, in: Annual Review of Sociology 47 (2021) 1, 391-415. [↩]
- Lutz, Helma: Gender Relations and Migration: Introduction to the Current State of the Debate, in: Amelina, Anna/Lutz, Helma (eds.): Gender and Migration: Transnational and Intersectional Prospects. London 2019, 1-25. [↩]
- Moss/Tilly 2001, 78. [↩]
- Lutz 2019, 7. [↩]
- Moss/Tilly 2001, 124. [↩]
- Aprile, Sylvie / Diaz, Delphine / Dupont, Alexandre / Durand, Antonin: Gender and exile, in: Diaz, Delphine / Aprile, Sylvie (eds.): Banished. Traveling the Roads of Exile in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Berlin, Boston, 2022, 175–204. [↩]
- Lutz 2019. [↩]
- Smith, Wendy K./Lewis, Marianne W.: Toward a theory of paradox: A dynamic equilibrium model of organizing, in:The Academy of Management 36 (2011) 2, 381-403. [↩]
- Lutz 2019. [↩]
OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Gast-Autor*in (10. Oktober 2025). More than the sum of its parts: An intersectional perspective on Moss and Tilly’s “Stories employers tell”. Migration and Belonging. Abgerufen am 7. November 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/14w0n
