Elizabeth Hirsh is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, where she studies work and employment, organizational dynamics, gender and race inequality, and the law.

Much of her work focuses on employment discrimination and the policies and practices that minimize bias. Hirsh regularly presents her research to professional and policy audiences and consults with governmental agencies in both Canada and the U.S.

At UBC, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on work, inequality, and quantitative data analysis. While not at work, Hirsh spends her time running, enjoying the beautiful outdoors, keeping up with her three children, and coaching youth sports.

Other Affiliations

Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Early Career Scholar and Faculty Associate

Research Affiliate, Center for the Study of Demography and Ecology, University of Washington.

Professor Hirsh’s research focuses on how organizational policies and legal mandates affect gender and race inequality and discrimination at work. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, her work demonstrates how disputes over discrimination, harassment, and pay emerge and how policy interventions affect firms’ progress toward gender and racial equity. Her research has been published in top sociology journals, including the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review, and top subfield journals, such as Work and Occupations, Gender and Society, and Law and Society Review.

Given the policy relevance of this work, Professor Hirsh has consulted with and served on numerous local, national, and international advisory panels, including at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, the Department of Justice Canada, and the BC Office of the Human Rights Commissioner. Her research contributes to timely policy debates regarding the implementation and impact of employment equity initiatives, affirmative action, pay equity, pay transparency, and discrimiation dispute resolution.

Selected Publications

Movahed, Masoud and Elizabeth Hirsh. 2023. “The Regional Determinants of Collective Action in the Era of American Resistance,” Interface 14(1): 81-100.

Masoud Movahed and Hirsh, C. Elizabeth. 2022. “Mobilizing Equal Employment Rights: The Social and Political Determinants of Discrimination Complaints,” The Sociological Quarterly, 64(2): 296-319.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth, Christina Treleaven, and Sylvia Fuller (2020). “Caregivers, Gender, and the Law: An Analysis of Family Responsibilities Discrimination Case Outcomes,” Gender and Society 34(5).

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth (2019). “Do Lawsuits Improve Gender and Racial Equality at Work?,” Harvard Business Review 123(4):1117-1160.

Fuller, Sylvia and C. Elizabeth Hirsh (2019). “Family-Friendly Jobs and Motherhood Pay Penalties: The Impact of Flexible Work Arrangements Across the Educational Spectrum,” Work and Occupations 46(1):3-44.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth and Youngjoo Cha (2018). “For Law and Markets: Employment Discrimination Lawsuits, Market Performance, and Managerial Diversity,” American Journal of Sociology 123(4):1117-1160.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth and Youngjoo Cha (2017). “Mandating Change: The Impact of Court-Mandated Policy Changes on Managerial Diversity,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 70(1):42-72.

Kmec, Julie, C. Elizabeth Hirsh and Sheryl Skagges (2016). “Workplace Regulation of Sexual Harassment and Federal and State-Level Legal Environments,” Research in the Sociology of Work 29(1):215-240.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth and Youngjoo Cha (2014). “Employment Discrimination Lawsuits and Corporate Stock Prices.” Social Currents 2:40-57.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth (2013). “Beyond Treatment and Impact: A Context-Oriented Approach to Employment Discrimination.”  American Behavioral Scientist 58(2):256-73.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth and Christopher J. Lyons (2010).  “Perceiving Discrimination on the Job: Legal Consciousness, Workplace Context, and the Construction of Race Discrimination,”  Law and Society Review 44(2):269-298.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth (2009). “The Strength of Weak Enforcement: The Impact of Discrimination Charges on Sex and Race Segregation in the Workplace.” American Sociological Review 74(2):245-71.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth (2008). “Settling for Less? The Organizational Determinants of Discrimination-Charge Outcomes.” Law and Society Review 42(2):239-274.

Hirsh, C. Elizabeth and Sabino Kornrich (2008). “The Context of Discrimination: Workplace Conditions, Institutional Environments, and Sex and Race Discrimination Charges,” American Journal of Sociology 113(5):1394-1432.

Recent Presentations

“When Work and Care Clash: The Gendered Nature of Caregiver Bias,” Oxford University, January 2021.

“What Works to Reduce Inequality: The Role of Lawsuits,” Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar, Harvard University, April 2018.

“Mandating Change? The Origins and Impact of Employment Discrimination Lawsuits,” Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley, CA, March 2017.

Oral Testimony on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Proposal to Collect Compensation Data from Private Employers, Commissioners Meeting, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C., March 2016.

“Mandating Change? The Impact of Mandated Policy Changes on Managerial Diversity,” Industrial and Labor Relations School, Cornell University, New York, NY, June 2015.

Core Faculty