When Job Ads Turn You Down: How Requirements in Job Ads May Stop Instead of Attract Highly Qualified Women

Abstract

Qualification-based targeted recruitment strategies aim to increase the number of qualified applicants from certain social groups, such as women. Typically, such strategies assume that individuals are more likely to apply for a job when they possess the requirements needed for that job. However, how job seekers react to requirements in job ads is not often considered and is explored in the present study. In two experimental studies with Belgian university students we investigated whether person requirements about which women have negative meta-stereotypes (like the trait of emotionality) and the way such requirements are formulated in job ads (i.e., using trait-like adjectives, BYou are calm/not nervous,^or behavior-like verbs, BYou remain calm in stressful situations^) affected women's job attraction and decision to apply. A repeated measures ANOVA showed that job attraction was lower if women held negative meta-stereotypes about required personality traits in job ads (Study 1; 218 women; M age = 23.44 years, range = 21-42; 97% ethnic majorities). Moreover, qualified women applied to a lesser extent if a negatively meta-stereotyped trait was worded in a trait-like way than when it was worded in a behavior-like way (Study 2; n = 183; M age = 23.68 years, range = 21-44; 58% women; 97% ethnic majorities). A practical implication is that recruiters should be sensitive to how they formulate job ads if they wish to attract a highly qualified and gender-diverse applicant pool.

Mind the ad: How personality requirements affect older and younger job seekers' job attraction

“…In line with assumptions from the LC‐model (Semin & Fiedler, 1991), ads that included negatively metastereotyped personality requirements were perceived as more attractive if such traits were worded in a behavioural way compared with a dispositional way. Similar findings were reported among ethnic minority and female job seekers (Wille & Derous, 2017, 2018) and seem to uphold for other groups of job seekers that might suffer from stereotypes and stigmatization on the labour market, like older/younger job seekers.…”

“…Second, not only whether , but also how negatively metastereotyped personality requirements in job ads affect job attraction is not well understood. Consistent with stereotype threat literature (Steele & Aronson, 1995), studies suggested—but did not test—whether stereotyped information in job ads might elicit threat, which in turn may lead to a loss of interest in the advertised job (Wille & Derous, 2017, 2018). Alternatively, Finkelstein et al (2020) recently showed that negative metastereotypes might also trigger perceptions of challenge and possibly result in more positive recruitment outcomes.…”

“…If candidates believe that the traits in job ads relate to personal characteristics that others think they do not hold, this might negatively affect their job attraction. That is, research showed that activation of negative metastereotypes does not only undermine job seekers' general beliefs about their employability chances (e.g., beliefs about how easy it is as a member of one's in‐group to find a job; Owuamalam & Zagefka, 2014) but also decreases one's job attraction to that specific job in the job ad (Wille & Derous, 2017, 2018). Relatedly, research showed that job ads with stereotyped language (stereotypically masculine traits, such as ‘decisive’) negatively affected how job seekers perceive the job (job appeal; Gaucher et al, 2011), and even their intention of applying to the job (Born & Taris, 2010).…”

A Survey on Skill Identification From Online Job Ads

“…In [38], the authors examined soft skills required by women and men in job ads and found that soft skills are associated with gender segregation across occupations and reinforce wage inequalities between men and women by rewarding typically "male" characteristics and penalizing "female" traits. In [139], the authors examined how job seekers react to requirements in job ads. More precisely, they investigated the impact of job requirements on women's job attraction and decision to apply.…”

“Like will to like” or “opposites attract”? Management board diversity affects employer attractiveness

“…Organizations have different opportunities to signal their level of diversity to applicants (e.g. via diversity-sensitive job ads, advertising campaigns, or role models; Ford and Patterson, 2019;Pietri et al, 2019;Wille and Derous, 2018). Following signaling theory, "applicants construe many recruitment-related activities and information as signals of unknown organizational characteristics" (Celani and Singh, 2011, p. 223); yet, activities and signals that are sent by organizations are only relevant if applicants receive and evaluate those signals.…”