The effect of language in job adverts on people’s behavior, as found by the study, was relatively small, but one woman told researchers the stereotypically male description made her feel she would have to work ‘twice as hard as men’.
Then the researchers asked 793 people how they would feel about applying for a job with masculine language, using example words like aggressive, dominant and competitive.
But this part of the study, looking at 790 people in total, found the language of a job advert significantly affected the appeal of the job only for a subset of people who already worked in male-dominated industries.
However the masculinity of the applicants was estimated based on their name, based partially on the theory that men whose parents chose masculine names for them probably brought them up with more typically male toys and activities, influencing how masculine they might feel as adults.
Stereotypically masculine job descriptions can leave women feeling ‘intimidated’ and worried about facing a ‘boys’ club’, a study has found.
