The way a job advert is written can exclude or include potential candidates. Studies have shown that female applicants are put off by male-skewed language. Interestingly though, men are not deterred by slightly feminised language.
Words and phrases that are regarded as stereotypically male include ‘dominant’, ‘competitive’, and ‘world class’.
Female-skewed language, including terms such as ‘team player’, ‘communication’ and ‘customer satisfaction tends to be more inclusive. You can test the language in your job applications via an online gender decoder. Some of the best known are:
Take a recent job advert from your organisation and test it out in Kat Matfield’s gender decoder. Is it more feminine- or masculine-coded? What could you amend in the job advert to make it more feminine-coded?