Percentages of Female to Male

[hod]

Does anyone know if there is a breakdown of scores F/M? or even the breakdown of eventual hires from the last go around? I know my circle of the world is small so I would never base any conclusion on what I personally have seen-but there do appear to be more male than female ALJ's, even among the new hires. And I have never seen or heard of an office that was predominantly, let alone solely, comprised of female ALJ's. I would add that I have a similar question regarding racial breakdown.

[pm]

The names from last year's first round are public and I believe are, or were, posted here.

Out of curiosity, what difference does it make?

[flannery]

HOD, under the old register, it is true, there were very few female ALJ's hired. When I was first hired by the Agency way back when, the ALJ corps was almost exclusively male (please someone else correct me if you think I'm wrong). Under the new hiring regime, for whatever reason, there are numerous female candidates hired. There is at least one ODAR office that, since the new register took effect, has all female ALJs. In one region, the Regional Chief is African American and so is one of the Hearing Office Chiefs. I have personally worked for one African American ALJ, but I haven't been around to that many offices I don't know how all this adds up statistically, just thought I'd offer this up, for whatever it's worth.

[hod]

Thanks-I was really just interested. My prospective is that there are very few women and minorities. I also thought it was curious that everyone I spoke to had two white male ALJ's on the interview portion. Again-I realize that what I see may or may not be "reality" when compared to the big picture. And, PM, the difference is what it always is- studies have shown that consciously or unconsciously people tend to pick the familiar over the different. However, that is not a statement I am making here with regard to this -since I really do not know the number who applied -obviously if less of any one group applied, that group would likely not as represented on the public list of hires. Also, as far as the writing sample shows, I am sure that social security numbers was a fine way to "even the playing field." Just curious about the rest.

[pm]

There are few women and minorities among the older ALJs but that is largely a result of veteran's preferences and also the fact that until 30 years ago women and minorities were uncommon in law school.

In the federal govt, afirmative action concepts have long ago trumped any psychological desire to pick the familiar over the unfamiliar.

[buttercup]

hod - I know of two interviews where one of the alj's was not a white male (completely different set of folks).

[nonamouse]

Hod,
Last year I had 3 people on my OPM panel, black male (clearly not an ALJ based on his age and a couple of other things that I noticed), white female and white male.

The old selection process had a different scoring system with the scores far more tightly bunched (the places behind the decimal point really mattered). The vet points were more valuable in the way that they were applied such that a high percentage of vets made up the ALJ corps. Now the new scoring range makes 5 or 10 points far less valuable, so more non-vets are being hired when compared to previous hires. My office had only one female ALJ for many years and even now one of the female ALJs is a vet who came off the old register several years ago.

My class last year had a much higher percentage of women and minorities than I had seen in any hearing office. Our class had what appeared to be a larger number of candidates who were fairly young and likely to be productive for many years before retiring (30ish-50ish).

[Legal Beagle]

I had a W/M OPM chief and 2 ALJs - one W/F the other W/M.

[interested]

Isn't the issue whether the panel interview could be used to fill the ALJ ranks with less represented groups of applicants?

[Interested]

Just to be clear - the last poster was "interested," spelled w/ a lower case "i" - and not me (username "Interested"). I respectfully decline to identify the number of interviewers, their races, or genders in my SI.

[ALJD]

Mar 3, 2009 15:22:38 GMT -5 Interested said:

Just to be clear - the last poster was "interested," spelled w/ a lower case "i" - and not me (username "Interested").

I modified the new poster's name to avoid further confusion. No worries.

[Interested]

Thanks!

[judicature]

Women were well represented in my training class last year. I will check the numbers and try to get this info on the board.