1.  Repeat the hiring process 20 times.  Press ctrl h to hire a new group of 14 men and women. Each time record the number of men hired, the number of women hired, and the difference (use absolute value of the difference)

 

Run

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

# Men

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

# Women

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Difference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Run

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

# Men

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

# Women

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Difference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  What fraction of times in the 20 runs did the number of men equal the number of women?

 

 

3.  What fraction of times in the 20 runs did the difference between the number of men and number of women equal 2 (8 men and 6 women or 6 men and 8 women)?

 

 

4. Fill in the fraction of times your differences had each of the following values.

 

Difference

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Fraction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Based on the data in 4, is it likely or unlikely that the difference would be 8 or more? Is it likely or unlikely that the difference would be 10 or more?

 

 

6.  Suppose you didn’t know whether the hiring was fair or not, and suppose you saw that there was a large difference between the number of men and women, say 10 or 12.  Then this might be explained in two ways.  One, it could be due just to chance although a very slim chance, or two, it could be due to discrimination.  What would the difference have to be to make you believe “beyond a reasonable doubt” that discrimination occurred in this hiring process?  Use the table in 4 to help you make this decision.

 

 

7.  In a real case, what additional information besides probability might a lawyer use to help prove or disprove discrimination?