Decoding bias: Gendered language in finance internship job postings

Oldford, Erin; Fiset, John

doi:10.1016/j.jbef.2021.100544

Cited by 11 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Our findings stand in opposition to some past research which claimed that women are discouraged by agentic wording, albeit such findings relate to the context of job ads and in non-UK samples. For example, Oldford and Fiset [ 12 ] found women were more likely to apply for finance jobs when the advert featured communal wording and discouraged when the job advert contained agentic wording.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Baxter

Czarnecka²,

Schivinski³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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Following mixed-methods sequential design and drawing on the message-audience congruence concept and homophily theory, across three studies in the UK, we examined the effect of gendered wording and endorser’s gender on the effectiveness of leaflets promoting walking. In Study 1, a mall-intercept study achieved 247 completed questionnaires. Results demonstrated that men and women indicated the highest behavioural intentions for communal wording presented by a male endorser. However, pairwise comparisons revealed that when the wording of the advert was agentic and the endorser was male, males indicated significantly higher scores of behavioural intentions compared with females. Attitude towards the ad for women was highest for communal wording/female endorser; for men it was for agentic wording/male endorser. In Study 2, consumers’ views towards the gendered content were explored in 20 semi-structured interviews. In study 3 we examined the impact of the respondent’s gender role identity on gendered content effectiveness. Overall, when controlled for level of gender role identity, only masculine males evaluated leaflets featuring communal wording negatively which suggests that wording matters only for masculine males, but not for other men and women. Theoretically, we identified that gender-based message-respondent congruence is not a necessary aspect of communications to be effective, except for one group: masculine males. Our study identified dominant gender role identity as a factor that explained respondents’ preferences for presented stimuli. Specifically, males who display masculine gender role identity differ in evaluations of communal wording from all other groups. Social and commercial marketers who target men and women with exercise-related services should consider the use of agentic wording endorsed by a male endorser when targeting masculine men to increase the likelihood of eliciting positive attitudes towards the communication. However, such distinctions should not be associated with differences in women’s evaluations or men who do not report masculine gender role identity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst endorser’s gender and gender role portrayal have been investigated in numerous advertising contexts [e.g., 35 – 37 ], gendered wording has only been researched predominantly in the context of job ads [ 12 , 27 ]. Moreover, no studies so far examined gendered wording effectiveness in the context of the UK.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Baxter

Czarnecka²,

Schivinski³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Agentic (i.e., more masculine) and communal (i.e., more feminine) job postings were created, and the authors surveyed participants on their perceptions of goal congruency in response to reading the manipulated postings through measures of organizational fit, job appeal, and overall interest in applying for the position. Their results showed that women are more interested in applying to postings with high communal and low agentic language use (Oldford & Fiset, 2021). In contrast, men are interested in postings with more gender-neutral language, or low communal and agentic language use (Oldford & Fiset, 2021).…”

Section: Gendered Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, when positions are communicated with stereotypically male traits, feelings of belonging or "fit" and job attractiveness decrease for women (Gaucher et al, 2011;Oldford & Fiset, 2021;Wille & Derous, 2018). Subsequently, this may lead to women believing they are purely uninterested in the job rather than being subliminally alienated, thus exacerbating women's stereotype of being uninterested in male-dominated fields (Gaucher et al, 2011).…”

Section: Gendered Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsequently, this may lead to women believing they are purely uninterested in the job rather than being subliminally alienated, thus exacerbating women's stereotype of being uninterested in male-dominated fields (Gaucher et al, 2011). Oldford and Fiset (2021) examined how the language of the job posting may influence the perceptions of a finance internship position through an experimental research design. Agentic (i.e., more masculine) and communal (i.e., more feminine) job postings were created, and the authors surveyed participants on their perceptions of goal congruency in response to reading the manipulated postings through measures of organizational fit, job appeal, and overall interest in applying for the position.…”

Section: Gendered Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

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Seeking a “Supportive” Leader: Gendered language in leadership job postings and women’s leadership identification

2024

JIRIRI

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Evidence suggests that women are underrepresented in leadership positions in Canada (MacDougall et al., 2021). While past research has shown that masculine wording reduces job attractiveness for women, few scholars have examined the effect of gendered language in a leadership context. First, we conducted a directed content analysis to assess the prevalence of gendered language in existing Canadian leadership job postings. This revealed that gendered language exists in job postings at expected levels, with masculine language occurring more frequently, especially in male-dominated industries. Second, we explored how gendered language impacts women’s intentions to apply for leadership positions and the potential roles of stereotype threat and perceived self-efficacy. Results indicated that, for women with lower self-efficacy, feminine language in job advertisements leads to greater application intentions through its effect on leadership identification. These findings suggest that more inclusive, feminine language in leadership job advertisements may encourage more women to apply

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Implicit gender bias in perceptions of financial jobs

Esser

Swalve

2022

SN Soc Sci

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Decoding bias: Gendered language in finance internship job postings

Cited by 11 publications

References 52 publications

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Seeking a “Supportive” Leader: Gendered language in leadership job postings and women’s leadership identification

Implicit gender bias in perceptions of financial jobs

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