Muslim women face a “chill factor” in the workplace that puts them at a greater disadvantage than any other group in British society, according to a new government report. The study, by the Women and Equalities Committee, found that Muslim women have to cope with a “triple penalty” for being female, Muslim, and an ethnic minority when they apply for jobs.
To deal with the issue, the MPs suggest employers enact name-blind recruitment to alleviate bias in hiring. The issue has bubbled up recently, as I wrote in June, with women with feminine or ethnic names telling stories of finding jobs only after tweaking their names to ones that are likely to be perceived as more masculine and more white.
Getting rid of name bias in hiring is tough because it can be unconscious. And name-blind recruiting isn’t a perfect tool, since there are ways women write that could reveal their gender. Even so, at a time when “stereotypical views of Muslim women can act as a barrier to work,” as Committee Chair and conservative MP Maria Miller put it, employers need to do something to bring qualified female candidates in from the cold.