Gendered language in job ads

[firecat]

http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/wanted-gender-free-job-ads/

The photo caption says: "Recent graduates browsing job announcements may not be conscious of it, but employment ads can signal whether a job is typically held by men or women."

I wonder why they assume people are unconscious of gendered language in job ads? I'm VERY conscious of it.

A commenter speaks for me: 'This is partly why I shy away from job descriptions seeking “rockstars,” “ninjas,” or “gurus.”'

Comments

[janetmiles]

I'm old enough that I remember when the paper divided the ads into "Help Wanted -- Men" and "Help Wanted -- Women".

[eagle]

I wonder how much correlation there is between male-gendered language and what I consider to be red flags in job ads for "avoid this work environment at all costs," since the examples listed in the article and the ones listed by that commentator are all high on my "this place is going to *suck* to work at" flags. Mostly because they all also imply (at least to me) "work-life balance is for people who can't hack it."

[firecat]

I think there's a correlation between male-gendered language and language that implies "We want someone in their early 20s who doesn't know better."

[shehasathree]

Hunh, interesting.

[eggcrack]

A commenter speaks for me: 'This is partly why I shy away from job descriptions seeking “rockstars,” “ninjas,” or “gurus.”'

They speak to me too. I've found that paying attention to the wordings and tones of the job announcements is a pretty trustworthy way of detecting the jobs that I actually want to do.

[zeborah]

I assumed that they hadn't made that assumption but that it was one of their research findings (whether in this study or a previous one) that the average person doesn't notice. This would match my general impression of the average person (of which, in this particular instance, I'm one; though I've never spent a lot of time, certainly not recently, reading job ads).

[pulchritude]

While the terms 'rockstars', 'ninjas', etc. do suggest certain character traits that are ofter gendered, I think most people don't consciously identify them as gendered terms.

[laughingrat]

Yeah, when I read those last three words, I instantly imagined some smug white 20 year old boy, possibly with a soul patch and Buddy Holly glasses. And then I felt a surge of fury, because bleurgh. It's interesting, because even though I clearly am getting the message, I wouldn't have consciously picked those out as gendered, even though that's my thing.

[adrian_turtle]

I wonder if they mean the people writing the ads are unconscious of the gendered wording? (That is, for ads written by hiring managers or recruiters or HR people, rather than as a sociology experiment.) I don't mean to suggest that unconscious bias is any more acceptable, or any less harmful, than deliberate attempts to discriminate...but they can be different problems, with somewhat different causes and solutions.

[firecat]

I think many job-ad-writers are unconscious of using gendered wording, yeah.

Ninjas

[(Anonymous)]

"Why do IT jobs never ask for computer technicians/programmers/etc? Its always gurus/ninjas/warriors. I'm a goddamn professional not a child."
https://twitter.com/#!/legostormtroopr/status/90606042974666753