Discrimination against women has been alleged in hiring practices for many
occupations, but it is extremely difficult to demonstrate sex-biased hiring. A change in the
way symphony orchestras recruit musicians provides an unusual way to test for sex-biased
hiring. To overcome possible biases in hiring, most orchestras revised their audition policies
in the 1970s and 1980s. A major change involved the use of “blind” auditions with a
“screen” to conceal the identity of the candidate from the jury. Female musicians in the top
five symphony orchestras in the United States were less than 5% of all players in 1970 but are
25% today. We ask whether women were more likely to be advanced and/ or hired with the
use of “blind” auditions. Using data from actual auditions in an individual fixed-effects
framework, we find that the screen increases — by 50% — the probability a woman will be
advanced out of certain preliminary rounds. The screen also enhances, by severalfold, the
likelihood a female contestant will be the winner in the final round. Using data on orchestra
personnel, the switch to “blind” auditions can explain between 30% and 55% of the increase
in the proportion female among new hires and between 25% and 46% of the increase in the
percentage female in the orchestras since 1970.