Is typical male language discouraging women from job offers?

Gender-related words in job advertisements could contribute to the low representation of women in certain occupations and positions. This is indicated in a recent report by a German research body, the Employment Research Institute (IAB), published at the end of September.

“The gender stereotypes in job advertisements can lead to a self-elimination bias, where women choose not to apply for these positions, even if they meet the requirements, due to the perception that they are not adequate“, concluded the study.

He added that the “stereotypically masculine job ads” They can also “lead to bias in the hiring process, where women are unfairly assessed as less competent or less suitable for the position.”

IAB researchers evaluated offers for 710 occupations published on one of Germany’s largest online job portals, BA Jobbörse. They discovered that there were actually more female-oriented jobs that focused on a “masculine” language.

Still, the report concluded that in certain fields such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)most job descriptions used “masculine” terms.

Job advertisements in health and social services were linguistically “feminine”while leadership positions in all occupations were more likely to use a “masculine” language.

What makes language gendered?

To decide whether the ads were aimed at men or women, the researchers separated the words into “agency” and “community” categories. Community characteristics They emphasize warmth and communitywhile agency characteristics prioritize decision and personal growth.

“Specifically, sociopsychological research has shown that men are more commonly associated with agentic characteristics, while men women are often associated with communal characteristics“said the IAB researchers.

Drawing on existing gender studies, they devised a list of words that fell into these two categories, before analyzing their presence in job offers.

Most experts would say that the association of words with gender is more problematic than the presence of these terms in job ads. For example, some jobs will require the candidate to be “assertive”. The problem is that This quality is considered “masculine”, instead of it appearing in the ad.

“For many jobs, there is a need for skills classified as community or agency, so these skills should be mentioned in the job text“said Dr. Michael Stops, IAB researcher.

However, he added that when certain formulations “are not necessary to describe the job”employers should consider excluding them from advertisements if they discourage applicants based on gender.

Stops also said that more could be done to encourage candidates to apply for jobs where gender stereotypes could be a barrier. She explained that, according to other studies, men are not affected by gender-biased wording in job ads, unlike women. These results were not tested in the recent report.

Gender neutral language

As in other EU member states, in Germany employers cannot explicitly specify a gender preference in job advertisements. The wording must be neutral, which has led to the use of the “gender asterisk” (it’s like the ‘@’ symbol in Spanish).

As in many other languages, German modifies nouns to reflect gender. For example, a professor is called ‘Lehrer’, while a woman in this position would be called ‘Lehrerin’. When the plural form is used, male construction takes precedenceeven when a group is made up of both men and women.

To be more inclusive, one solution is to add an asterisk to nouns. Instead of absorbing the feminine form into the masculine, they are both written – ‘Lehrer*in’. This has caused controversy in Germany, with some claiming that gender-sensitive language is undermining linguistic accuracy.

Education is the foundation

According to Professor Alexandra Scheele, from the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Bielefeld, the language of job offers can contribute to the professional division by gender. However, he highlighted the fundamental role that education plays. “When choosing vocational training after school, women already choose from a narrower range of jobs,” she told Euronews.

“At school, boys and girls they continue to receive different treatment. And new studies show that even if a girl has the same math grades as a boy, she tends to consider herself inferior in this subject. Therefore, this stereotype already exists in education.”

In the future, he argued that It would be interesting to take a closer look at the qualification profiles of women who decide not to apply for jobs in which “masculine” language is used. “Women tend to choose professions in job advertisements that already fit their existing qualifications,” she said.

Professor Scheele also explained that in the field of recruitment, the approach is still very common. “Those looking for a professional successor often They already have someone like them in mind. And if the position was previously held by a man, they are likely to look for a man again.”

According to Scheele, doing make the language more inclusive It is just one aspect of the fight against gender stereotypes that fuel professional imbalances.