Latest research has found a high level of sexist gender-coded language present in many job adverts.
The data, compiled by Adzuna, revealed that consultancy, property, sales, maintenance and travel industries were the most discouraging towards female jobseekers. Each industry used 50% or more male-biased words in their job ads.
The sectors with the most female-biased language were found to be domestic help and cleaning, teaching, social work, charity and voluntary and healthcare and nursing.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, commented on the findings, “With studies showing the use of such ‘masculine’ words in job ads directly discourage female applicants and our data revealing 60% of job ads are sexist towards women by using male-biased language, UK industries need to be more conscious about language during their recruitment process.
“Gendered wording in job adverts can have the effect of supporting the gender imbalance within industries that are already perceived as being male-dominated. While it is encouraging to see a general trend towards neutral language over the past few years, several industries need to make more of an active effort to combat gender-bias within their ads in order to subliminally encourage female talent.
“Unconscious bias may lead to accidental discrimination, but there is no excuse in 2019. It’s time for employers to go back to the drawing board and redesign their recruitment basics in order to keep up with the times. We’re already seeing movement being made towards gender equality when it comes to pay; why should attracting talent be any different?”
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