Gender Bias in Tech Hiring Practices

This assignment investigates gender bias in hiring practices within the tech industry, focusing specifically on Google and Apple. It utilizes data presented in tables to compare the acceptance rates of female and male resumes. The analysis highlights a potential bias towards females at Apple, contrasting with a potential bias towards males at Google.

Running head: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Table of Contents
Answer 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Political theory.............................................................................................................................2
Hypothesis...................................................................................................................................2
ANSWER 2 A..................................................................................................................................4
Answer 2. B:....................................................................................................................................5
Answer 3..........................................................................................................................................5
Game Theory Model....................................................................................................................5
Zero sum games...........................................................................................................................6
Answer 4:.........................................................................................................................................7
References......................................................................................................................................10

2THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Answer 1
Political theory
The concept of political theory has been used to describe the principles and ideas that are
used by the people to explain, evaluate and provide a description of the political institutions and
events.
Marxism, developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Marxism is a social as well
as a political theory that argues that a social change comes about through the process of
economic class struggle. The Communist Manifesto and the Das Kapital are some of the
important works (Levinson, Cookson and Sadovnik 2014).
According to the Marxists, class struggle has been the momentum for social change. The
theory suggests that the past or history can be viewed as a chain of class struggles where one
social class has been oppressed by the others. The oppressed classes in the long run conquer the
oppressor class and henceforth, a new social structure arises with a new set of oppressors and
new classes to be oppressed (Peet and Hartwick 2015). Marx argued that the class of proletarian,
or the worker, was being oppressed by capitalists who acquired a large amount of the value of
the proletarian work to make profits
Hypothesis
1:

3THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
The communist hypothesis has been: that a different collective organization is suggested
practicable, which will do away with the inequalities of wealth and the division of labor. The
personal appropriation of enormous fortunes and their transmission by the inheritance will
eventually disappear.
2:
The existence of a violent and coercive state, distinct from the civil society, would no
longer emerge as a necessity: a lengthy process of restructuring based on free association of
producers will witness it withering away.
Variables in hypothesis 1:
Inequalities of wealth and division of labor.
Variables in hypothesis 2:
Existence of a violent and coercive state.
The hurdles faced in making a practical approach to Marxism:
The class structure in the society, today has been more multifaceted than the concept of
‘Bourgeois-Proletariat’ referred in Marxism. In most of the Western parts of the world and
progressively more in the developing countries there has been an existence of an extensive
‘middle-class’, assumed to have stocks as well as shares that is invested in the Corporations run
by that particular class, which the Marxists would interpret as ‘Capitalist Class’.
The concept of ‘grand theorizing’ by Marx, with reference to the world being no longer
relevant would not be much of a practical significance– Instead, researching with the intention

4THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
of creating a perfect society, the attention should be focused on more definite social issues which
are locally centered.
ANSWER 2 A
The university administration stated that female students performed better in the
placement test owing to their gender.
Now, this statement has to be discarded, as it has no conclusive facts to prove the results.
The research design applied by the administration has innumerable loopholes and do not match
the standards of a proper research. The problems that stand out in the aforementioned research
design are:
The absence of a proper theoretical framework- It symbolizes the intangible groundwork
of a study. This means that the research must include a clear set of rationally derived premises
and postulations that can be tested with connection to the research problem. The above research
fails to implement any of these frameworks (Mandel 2012).
“So what”? Question left unanswered- The university administration simply concluded
that merely being a female helps in performing better at English placement tests. The research
fails to answer as to what significance it holds for future researches.
Poor sampling- Another problem with the research design is the sampling. The
administration selected students who applied for admissions and hence had to appear for the test.
The sampling hence was limited to aspiring students only and not to a wider group of male and
females. The sampling done was based on the convenience of the researchers which is against
the ethics of research.

5THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Answer 2. B:
The conclusions drawn by the university is based on observational data. Observational
study demands the researcher to observe the proceedings of any test. It does not require the
researcher to influence the aspects of the study in order to reach a conclusion (Charness, Gneezy
and Kuhn 2012). In addition, conclusions drawn on the basis of observational data do not answer
the question “Why”? The university administration concluded that being female helps students
perform better but it did not answer as to why being female led to better performance in the
English performance test (Hallgren 2012).
Answer 3
Game Theory Model
The concept of Game Theory Model has generally been used in the field of Political
Science, Economics, and Psychology as well as in the fields of Computer Science, Biology and
logic. Initially, it addressed the ‘zero-sum games’, where there would be gain of one person, and
at the same time, result in losses to the rest of the participants.

6THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Nowadays, Game Theory has been applicable to a variety of behavioral relations. This
term has now been considered as a broad term used for covering the science of logical decision
making in individuals as well as computers and animals.
Friend
Zero sum games
Zero-sum games can be termed as an extraordinary case of constant-sum games, where
the choices by the players cannot increase or decrease the resources that are available. In case of
the zero-sum games, for each combination of strategies, the total benefit entitled to each and
every players in the game, always results or adds to zero. Informally, it can be concluded that, a
player is benefitted only at equal expense of others). It has been illustrated by Poker that a zero-
sum game, has ignored the likelihood of the cut of the house, as the person wins by the same
amount as that of the amount by which the other opponents has lost. Some of the examples of
Zero Sum Games are ‘matching the pennies’; ‘Chess’, ‘Go’ and others (Dixit and Skeath 2015).
You
Study group Alone 1, 0 1, 1
2, 2 0, 1

7THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
A variety of games has been studied by the game theorists, which are non-zero-sum
games. Like the famous ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’. These are called the non zero sum games, as the
outcome or the net result is lesser or greater than zero. In contrary to the zero sum gains, in case
of the non zero sum games, winning or gain by any of the player doesn’t necessarily results with
a loss by other participants (Washburn 2013).
The sum games do not always have a positive impact. It can correspond or lead to acts
such as, gambling and theft, but there is no possibility of correspondence to the fundamental
economic situation, where there are potential profits from trading.
Hence, in the given situation, in case of miscommunication between both the student and
his friend, it would be profitable for both of them to study alone, in order to get the maximum
result (Russell and Shogren 2012).
Answer 4:
Table 1: Industry
Accepte
d
Rejecte
d
Tota
l
Female
s 325 315 640
Males 510 225 735
Total 835 540
137
5
Table 2: Industry Marginal

8THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Accept
ed
Rejecte
d Total
Femal
es
0.2363
64
0.2290
91
0.4654
55
Males
0.3709
09
0.1636
36
0.5345
45
Total
0.6072
73
0.3927
27 1
Table 2 shows the marginal probabilities of accepting and rejecting males and females
resume in the industry as a whole. The probability of accepting females resume is 0.236 while
that of male is 0.370. This shows a clear biasness towards accepting males resume. This
evidenced the gender bias in the tech industry taking the two companies together.
Table 3:Google
Accepte
d
Rejecte
d
Tota
l
Female
s 150 300 450
Males 15 95 110
Total 165 395 560
Table 4: Google Marginal
Accepted
Rejecte
d Total
Femal
es
0.267857
14
0.5357
14
0.8035
71
Males
0.026785
71
0.1696
43
0.1964
29
Total 0.294642 0.7053 1

9THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
86 57
The marginal probability table of Google shows probability of accepting female resume
is 0.2678 while for males this is 0.02678. This reflects clear gender bias towards female in
Google.
Table 5:Apple
Accepte
d
Rejecte
d
Tota
l
Female
s 175 15 190
Males 495 130 625
Total 670 145 815
Table 6: Apple Marginal
Accept
ed
Rejecte
d Total
Femal
es
0.2147
24
0.0184
05
0.2331
29
Males
0.6073
62
0.1595
09
0.7668
71
total
0.8220
86
0.1779
14 1
Probability of accepting female resume in Apple is 0.2147 and that of ale probability is
0.6074. In contrast to Google, the gender bias in Apple is in favor of females.

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References
Charness, G., Gneezy, U. and Kuhn, M.A., 2012. Experimental methods: Between-subject and
within-subject design. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(1), pp.1-8.
Dixit, A.K. and Skeath, S., 2015. Games of Strategy: Fourth International Student Edition. WW
Norton & Company.
Hallgren, K.A., 2012. Computing inter-rater reliability for observational data: an overview and
tutorial. Tutorials in quantitative methods for psychology, 8(1), p.23.
Levinson, D., Cookson, P. and Sadovnik, A. eds., 2014. Education and sociology: An
encyclopedia. Routledge.
Mandel, J., 2012. The statistical analysis of experimental data. Courier Corporation.
Peet, R. and Hartwick, E., 2015. Theories of development: Contentions, arguments, alternatives.
Guilford Publications.
Russell, C.S. and Shogren, J. eds., 2012. Theory, modeling and experience in the management of
nonpoint-source pollution (Vol. 1). Springer Science & Business Media.
Washburn, A., 2013. Two-person zero-sum games (Vol. 201). Springer Science & Business
Media.