Job male applicants feminine language; upshot disconnect ?
Job postings for home health aides say applicants need to be
"sympathetic" and "caring," "empathetic" and focused on "families."
It turns out that doesn't lead very many men to apply.
Employers have something to do with that: An analysis of listings for the 14 fastest-growing jobs from 2014 to 2024 found that they used feminine language, which has been statistically shown to attract women and deter men. The study was done by Textio, which has analyzed 50 million job listings for language that provokes disproportionate responses from men or women.
Compare that with job listings for cartographers, one of the few fast-growing jobs that is male-dominated. It is 62 percent male and expected to grow 29 percent by 2024. Common key words were manage, forces, exceptional, proven and superior. These words tend to appeal to men and generally result in a male hire, Textio found.
Job descriptions for the two fastest-growing jobs that men mostly do -- wind turbine technicians and commercial divers -- also used masculine language.
Textio said it improved the results for a job posting for a software development manager by changing a few words from masculine to gender neutral:
"premier" instead of "world-class,"
"extraordinary" instead of "rock star" and
"handle a fast-paced schedule" instead of "manage" it.