Research & Insights

RESEARCH & INSIGHTS

How Biased Are Job Ads From Male-Dominated And Female-Dominated Industries?

We assessed five male dominated industries (Financial Services, Computer Software, Aviation & Aerospace, Construction, and Security & Investigations), five female dominated industries (Human Resources, Design & Graphics, Veterinary, Hospitality & Healthcare, and Environmental Services) and 5,000 job ads in total to determine their level of gender bias.

Top industries whose job ads are dominated by masculine and feminine language

% indicates percentage of job ads dominated by masculine words within this industry

% indicates percentage of job ads dominated by feminine words within this industry

Male dominated industries utilize more masculine gendered words in their job descriptions, while female dominated industries utilize more feminine gendered words.

Although masculine coded words predominate in male dominated industries and female coded words predominate in female dominated industries, masculine coded words are more prevalent across the board (i.e. there are more masculine coded words present in female dominated industries than there are feminine coded words in male dominated industries).

% indicates the percentage of job ads dominated by masculine language

% indicates the percentage of job ads dominated by feminine language

Top 10 Masculine and Feminine Words

The top 5 feminine coded words (support, responsibilities, responsible, committed, understanding) account for 60% of all feminine coded words in the dataset. The top 5 masculine coded words (analysis, leadership, leading, individual, individuals) account for only 30% of all masculine coded words in the dataset.

Are the job ads used by Fortune 500 companies inviting or deterring for people of color?

UInclude's team of data analysts and psychology researchers examined 16,000 job ads across 23 industries from Fortune 500 companies in the top and bottom quartile for racial and ethnic diversity, and constructed a pioneer research report on race-based inclusive language.

Read the full report for more insights.

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Over half of the companies had the majority of their Job ads dominated by exclusive language.

% indicates the percentage of companies who had the majority of their job ads dominated by inclusive language

% indicates the percentage of companies who had the majority of their job ads dominated by exclusive language

Racially diverse companies have significantly more job ads dominated by inclusive language. Companies lacking racial diversity have significantly more job ads dominated by exclusive language.

% indicates the percentage of job ads in each industry dominated by inclusive language

% indicates the percentage of job ads in each industry dominated by exclusive language

Participants found inclusively worded job ads to be more appealing. They perceived a higher sense of belonging, a more inclusive company culture and indicated that they would apply for those jobs.

On average, appeal and decision to apply ratings for inclusively worded job ads increased at a rate 5x higher than that of unedited job ads, and 6x that of exclusively worded job ads.