Elizabeth Gorman is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. She earned her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard University, and holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard. Before beginning her graduate studies in sociology, she practiced law for five years in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Professor Gorman's research interests lie in the areas of organizations, work, and professions, and gender and other bases of inequality. One current focus examines gender differences in mobility and attainment within organizations. For example, a recent article in the American Sociological Review demonstrates the impact of gender stereotypes on hiring by showing that organizations with more stereotypically masculine criteria hire fewer women while those with more stereotypically feminine criteria hire more women.

A second stream of Professor Gorman’s research investigates gender and family-based differences in work-related behavior and attitudes. A recent study in Gender & Society (with co-author Julie Kmec) shows that, in both Britain and the United States, women report that their jobs require greater effort than men say their jobs do.  This effect is not explained by either job characteristics or family demands—suggesting that either employers impose higher standards on women or women impose higher standards on themselves (or both).

Professor Gorman teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels on organizations, work, gender, and quantitative methods.

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Articles

Fiona Kay and Elizabeth H. Gorman. 2008. "Women in the Legal Profession." Annual Review of Law and Social Science 4: 299-332.

"We (Have To) Try Harder: Gender and Required Work Effort in Britain and the United States." Gender Society 2007; 21; 828-856. (with Julie A. Kmec)

“Work Uncertainty and the Promotion of Professional Women: The case of Law Firm Partnership .” Social Forces  85 (2): 865-890.   (December 2006)

“Gender Stereotypes, Same-Gender Preferences, and Organizational Variation in the Hiring of Women: Evidence from Law Firms.”  American Sociological Review 70:702-728.  (August 2005)

 

Undergraduate Level SOC 271 - Introduction to Organization SOC 371 - Organizations, Institutions, Markets SOC 4190 (419) - Gender and Work SOC 4051 (451) - Topics in the Sociology of Work SOC 4980 (498) - Distinguished Majors Seminar

Graduate Level SOC 5120 (512) - Intermediate Statistics SOC 8710 (571/871) - Sociology of Organizations