Elizabeth Gorman is Assistant 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. 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. Another article, forthcoming in Social Forces, finds that firms are less likely to promote women when the nature of their work is less predictable and requires greater exercise of judgment. A current project examines the relationship between firms' cultural norms concerning training and mentoring and women's chances of promotion.

Another stream of her research investigates gender and family-based differences in work-related behavior and attitudes. In an article published in the Journal of Marriage and the Family, she showed that married men's job-shifting patterns account for a portion of their earnings advantage over single men. Another study, published in Work and Occupations, found that making money is a more important value for both married men and women than for their single counterparts. Findings from a current project show that, in both Britain and the United States, women report that their jobs require greater effort than men say their jobs do, and this effect is not explained by either job characteristics or family demands.

She has also examined changes in the legal profession and their impact on law firms. A recent essay in the North Carolina Law Review discusses possible causes and implications of the trend among large law firms to establish their own in-house general counsel positions. In a paper published in the Law and Society Review, she showed that law firms that are more deeply affected by recent changes in the professional environment – in particular, the increasing complexity of work, the weakening of client ties, and the decline of collegiality in organizational cultures - are more likely to create "permanent" positions resembling the bureaucratic employment model rather than the traditional "up-or-out" model.

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

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Articles

“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)

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

Undergraduate Level SOC 271 - Introduction to Organization SOC 419 - Gender and Work SOC 451 - Topics in the Sociology of Work SOC 498 - Distinguished Majors Seminar

Graduate Level SOC 512 - Intermediate Statistics SOC 571 - Sociology of Organizations SOC 871 - Sociology of Organizations