Is your Shortlisting Gender Neutral?

Is your Shortlisting Gender Neutral?

Ironing out gender bias in the recruitment process.

By Rose McCarter-Field

Are you confident that your shortlisting process is totally unbiased? Gender neutral shortlisting starts from way before you read the CVs. First ask yourself, are you looking for ‘someone like me’? Or someone like a particular person in the team?

This mindset prevents diversity from the start.

Create a diverse team, including a woman to collate your shortlist criteria. This helps to iron out inherent biases in your process. This team can provide a different perspective and help your process become more inclusive. Women typically don’t apply for a role if they don’t think they are 100% qualified, so be honest and fair in setting out this criteria.

This leads to a closer look at which skills, experiences, and qualities are actually essential and which are nice to have. Be sure that you don’t think an item on your shortlist is essential, when there are alternative skills, experiences, and qualities that are just as valuable.

Research and experience has shown us that women tend to be more modest in the job application process. Be aware of this when reading applications and in interviews. Be inquisitive rather than ready to strike someone off because they didn’t ‘sell’ themselves. In the interview, ask about their experiences, give them time to talk. The more inquisitive you are with all your candidates, the fairer picture you will build of their capabilities.

As always, if you need any help with the recruitment of people of all genders or assistance with your international payroll, get in touch.

team@projectrecruit.com

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July 9, 2021August 8, 2025

How to Get More Female Applicants

Advertising Job Roles to Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

Did you know that 60% of industries have been shown to have a male bias in their job adverts?(1) People are more likely to apply for a job advert that they can relate to. If you have a male bias in your adverts you will put women off. And women represent half the talent pool!

And here’s the thing, people often don’t even realise they are showing a male bias in their adverts. So what do you need to look out for?

Words are a big factor. The gender neutral pronoun ‘they’ is perfectly interchangeable with ‘he’ or ‘she’ and doesn’t exclude anyone. Then the slightly less obvious words associated with being male, such as ‘hero’ or ‘ninja’ are a turn off.

But this is basic stuff, finding wording that appeals to women is more complex than gender assignment. Women look for a different kind of description in their adverts. Women are more likely to relate to an advert that shows a work-life balance, culture, and values. Technical jargon without the context of the lifestyle they will have working for you, just turns them off.

Use images with women in. If they see a male dominated environment, they know they will be a minority. And as a result, will be more tempted by a different advert with more inclusive images. If you are using genuine images from your company and you have women in leadership, get them in the pictures! Seeing women in leadership roles shows female candidates that there is a potential future for them in your organisation.

When you get into more detail in the advert, remember, women care about more than the job specification. They care about what their life will be like working with you. What is the work life balance at your company? Is there flexible working? Equal pay? Career opportunities? Does the company have values? A friendly culture? These are important to get across sooner rather than later.

As always, if you need any help with the recruitment of people of all genders or assistance with your international payroll, get in touch.

team@projectrecruit.com

HR Director, 2019 https://www.thehrdirector.com/features/diversity-and-equality/job-ads-show-sexism-still-prevalent-industries430/

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July 5, 2021July 5, 2022

How to Get Buy Into the Gender Equality Movement

Company Stakeholder Engagement

By Rose McCarter-Field

In 10 years, the next generation workforce will be 85% minorities (1). This includes people of non male gender, people of non white race, people of different sexual orientations, different abilities, and religions.

If your company does not yet see the importance of equality, they are missing out on the next generation of talent. When it comes to gender equality, specifically a bias against women, you are cutting out half of the talent pool by not being inclusive.

But how do we get stakeholder buy-in to gender equality? To make a long term change we need strategy, accountability, and tangible goals. We also need male advocates to make it work.

Jeffrey Tobias, Gender Strategist at YWomen recommends one simple step to start the question of ‘is my company sexist?’ He recommends encouraging a leader in your company to ask a female staff member one simple question, ‘are you having a different experience in the workplace than I am?’ Do not expect genuine insights the first time it is asked, so ask again, ‘is there something I don’t understand?’ And listen, don’t interrupt. Wait for her to share. Then ask a third time. Those last few minutes will be the most enlightening. Tobias finds that these conversations are what triggers understanding and curiosity in leaders. These types of inquisitive discussions highlight the ways people are treated differently, and the knock on effect of gender bias behaviours in the workplace. (1)

Once leaders start to see the everyday differences, it helps to provide incentives that reflect the wider scale impact of sexism in the workplace. For instance, gender equality avoids lawsuits, it is better for the bottom line. Companies with diverse teams have been found to perform better (2). And of course it provides a fairer workplace for the next generation.

If you try the ‘is my company sexist?’ questions, let me know how it goes, I’d be interested to hear. And as always, if you need any help with the recruitment of people of all genders or with your international payroll, get in touch.

team@projectrecruit.com

1. Forbes, 2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2019/12/16/how-to-engage-more-male-leaders-in-the-gender-equality-movement/
2. Glassdoor, 2021 https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/10-ways-remove-gender-bias-job-listings/

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June 28, 2021July 5, 2022

How to Write a Gender Inclusive Job Description

5 Top Tips for Getting more Female Applicants

By Rose McCarter-Field

Do you find that it is mostly men applying for the jobs you advertise? How a job description is written can and does put women off.

Gender diverse companies have been found to be 15% more likely to outperform those that are not (1). So why wait? Here are a few tips to make your job descriptions more gender inclusive.

Are the words you use elitist or inclusive?

The words used in role descriptions (especially in tech) have been proven to put women off. Avoid terms such as ‘we need a tech superhero’, ‘rock star’, or ‘hacker’ although these terms may not put all women off, have been found to reduce female interest in a role (1). Unnecessary overuse of technical terms is also a big turn off, even for some of the most technically minded women. Technical terms specific to the job are fine, but does the job description sound cold? Elitist? Unfriendly?

As always, if you need any help with the recruitment of people of all genders or assistance with your international payroll, get in touch.

1. Glassdoor, 2021 https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/10-ways-remove-gender-bias-job-listings/

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June 9, 2021July 5, 2022

Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do? (Part 4)

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 4

How to Promote Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

Have a look around at your leadership team. How many women are there?

Is it that you don’t have female employees to promote? Or because your promotion processes are not inclusive?

Research tells us that promoting women is a ‘chicken and egg’ scenario. If you don’t have women in leadership roles it is difficult for prospective female staff to see career prospects at your company. And how do you know that your promotion processes are inclusive, if it is mostly men promoting men?

Take a look at the informal buddy mentoring systems in your company, are managers and leaders choosing to mentor people that remind them of themselves? This instantly reduces the potential for an inclusive culture.

How clearly defined are your promotion processes? Do you internally advertise to all staff? Bear in mind that women are typically less likely to apply for a role if they don’t feel they have proven experience of 100% of the skills listed. And that if others in the team are applying, women are less likely to put themselves forward.

How would you define the perfect candidate? And what are the shortlisting criteria? Compare your preconceptions about the type of person who should fill the role, and the skills needed to carry out the role well. This will highlight some inbuilt biases. We are all guilty of inbuilt biases, and for inclusive recruitment, we need to keep them in check.

Do your career progression opportunities include flexible working? A friendly culture? A value system that they can relate to? Are your job descriptions compiled of technical terms? Or do they provide a contextual insight into the type of role you are advertising? All these items have been found to make-or-break whether a female decides to apply for a role.

A culture of inclusion will come more readily when you have people of all genders, at all levels in the organisation. Until then, it helps if current female leaders are visible. Let people see any women you have on your board, or in management, so that women can see a future for themselves in your company.

“You can’t be what you can’t see”.

Marian Wright Edelman, Children rights activist

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June 2, 2021May 26, 2021

Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do? (Part 3)

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 3

How to Retain Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

Did you know that women are twice as likely to leave the technology sector than men? (1) Does this happen in your company? Research has shown that there is something about the STEM sector that is turning away talented women in increasing numbers (2).

It’s hard enough to find talented women to apply for tech jobs, why are they so keen to leave once they get here? I’ve been reading a number of commercial and scientific studies on the reason women leave STEM and I’d like to share some common threads in the findings. Perhaps in understanding these commonalities we can discover how to create a more gender inclusive industry.

Sadly misogyny is still a recorded issue, there is also a less blatant ‘lads’ culture that has been recorded to make women feel unwelcome at work. In part, this is day-to-day communications but it has also been found in many mentoring programmes and promotion processes. Have a look at how gender inclusive the promotion prospects in your company are. How many women do you have in managerial and leadership roles? If the answer is few, and your female staff are predominantly in entry level roles, then your career prospects are not gender inclusive. (See the next article where I focus on this, as it is a prevalent issue in STEM.)

Astoundingly, the gender pay gap is still an issue. A male computer programmer for instance will earn on average 11.6% more than their female counterpart. A female engineer will earn 18.7% less. In contrast to other sectors, a male in education will earn 2.4% more, a male procurement specialist will earn 0.6% more. (4) … You get the idea. It’s not an issue isolated to STEM, but STEM notably underperforms when it comes to the gender pay gap. Until this is solved, talented women will be able to earn more in other industries. If your company hasn’t fixed this yet, I urge you to put this at the top of your to-do-list for creating a gender inclusive company. Having a transparent pay and rewards structure will go a long way to ironing out these unseen inequalities.

Many women at some point feel inclined to choose a realistic balance between a career and family, so giving benefits that make balancing work and family life easier will help you keep your top female talent. Netflix offers parents of any gender up to a year off with full pay after the birth or adoption of a child (5). While Microsoft and Airbnb offer 22 weeks to new mums with full pay. (5)

An estimated 22,000 women have failed to return to the engineering sector (5) following a career break. Some companies offer return to work programmes to help the move back into work, as well as fill the skills gap to ‘catch up’ with their male counterparts who haven’t had a career break. Alongside this, statutory parental leave now encourages new fathers to share childcare within the first year, enabling women to return to work earlier, if they would like to.

Many companies are embracing formalised flexible working policies, regardless of gender, as well as the option to work from home. This improves the quality of life for all employees, especially parents. It also enhances your appeal as an employer.

There are many factors affecting the gender balance in STEM. Aspects such as pay, an inclusive culture, career prospects and flexible working seem to have the biggest impact in balancing out gender equality. It’s important to also be aware that diversity without inclusion is a recipe for failure. Just having women in the team doesn’t mean you have an inclusive culture. You’ll need to cultivate and maintain an inclusive environment at all levels, for diversity to last.

Part 4: How to Promote Women – coming soon! If you’d like this series of articles sent to your inbox, sign up here. Or come back in a week when I plan to post the next in the series.

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May 26, 2021May 26, 2021

Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do? (Part 2)

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 2

How to Recruit Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

How often do you get a female applicant for a tech job? Surely all tech companies are mostly male, so it’s not just you? Tech giants and research groups have identified how tech companies are putting female talent off. And yes it is you, it’s actually all of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) industries that have been found to have a culture that excludes women, right from the starting point, recruitment.

So what can we do? Research has shown that many women look at different facets of a company when looking for work. Women are more likely to be interested in culture, values, and work flexibility. Research such as those studies conducted by Akzo Nobel have found that engineering adverts, or adverts written by engineers often alienate women (1). They want to be able to see the life they would have working with you, not just technical terminology on tasks.

Role Profiling

What are managers and recruiters preconceptions about the type of character that will fit? Is this inclusive? Or is it ‘people like me’? If managers want to recruit ‘people like me’ or ‘people like Jo Blogs’ then you will never have an inclusive culture. It is important for managers to understand preconceptions about the type of person they want, and how that differs from the skills and attributes required to do a good job.

Job Adverts

Have a think about how you are advertising your roles. Are your adverts inclusive in their language and imagery? Do they use lots of cold technical terms? Where are the adverts being shown? Are any women seeing them? If you are head hunting, have you head hunted any women?

Women also don’t tend to apply for a job unless they have all of the skills listed on the job description, and extensive experience of those skills(2). Make sure you think carefully about which skills are essential for the role and clearly define your must-haves from your nice to haves; it will make the world of difference to the applications that come through.

Shortlisting

Research has also shown that women are more likely to be modest about their achievements in their application and in the interview. Be aware of this, especially in the interview process when asking interviewees about their experience. It helps to be clear about your shortlisting criteria, and place the onus on yourself to find the best match for this criteria. Try to get the best out of every interviewee by being inquisitive, that will give a fairer picture of the comparative experiences of applicants.

To aid inclusion in our recruitment, we need different perspectives on the table throughout all our processes, actions, and communications. That is how real inclusion comes about. But if that is not possible presently, we can take these basic steps to start the journey towards gender equality.

Part 3: How to Retain Women – coming soon! If you’d like this series of articles sent to your inbox, sign up here. Or come back in a week when I plan to post the next in the series.

Afternote on Equality:

I find myself in a difficult situation not wanting to perpetuate any stereotypes by highlighting gender differences. Especially in a world where gender identity is no longer black and white. I can justify this by understanding that there really is a culture in STEM that is putting women off and we need to be aware of why this is, in order to achieve a better gender balance. There are so many talented people out there, and we want them to join us in STEM!

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May 21, 2021July 5, 2022

Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do? (Part 1)

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 1

Key Factors to Creating Gender Balance

By Rose McCarter-Field

How many of your staff are female? For the past decade women in technology have accounted for 17% of staff(1). And in the UK, this minority percentage has started to decrease further (2).

What percentage of your job applicants are female? And what percentage of people applying for promotions are female? Recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, and Maths) doesn’t just happen.

There are fundamental changes that have been proven to increase the RECRUITMENT, RETENTION and PROMOTION of talented women in STEM. These are the 3 aspects of creating a more gender balanced company that I will be exploring in this series of articles, and in my Digileaders webinar on the 17th June.

We have to start by recognising that we have created a culture that is not inclusive in the STEM sectors. The lack of women in STEM fields is a complex, multifaceted issue that requires persistent, long-term action. However, research has shown that there are tangible steps you can take to make a real difference now. Companies such as Nokia are taking these steps and seeing their talent pool open up to both genders.

Research has shown that everything from the wording in job descriptions to the nature of mentoring programmes has perpetuated the gender imbalance in STEM. These are tangible processes and communications that we can change. We can open up the talent pool to women. We just need to recognise how we are turning them away.

Part 2: How to Recruit Women – coming soon! Over the coming months I will be sharing a series of articles containing insights, ideas and tangible actions on how to recruit women in tech. If you’d like this series sent to your inbox, sign up here. Or come back in a week when I plan to post the next in the series.

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May 10, 2021May 10, 2021

Webinar – How Do We Get More Women in Tech?

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April 29, 2021July 5, 2022

10 Ways to Get Your Daughter Interested in STEM

10 Ways to Get Your Daughter Interested in STEM

And why it's important to start now.

By Rose McCarter-Field

Why is it important for us to engage our daughters in STEM subjects?

When asked to draw a scientist, older children are twice as likely to draw a man than a woman.

The older the child is, the more likely they are to draw a man. The shift in results is triggered by girls becoming increasingly likely to draw a male scientist the older they get. A study of 20,000 students showed that 70% of 6 year old girls will draw a female, while only 25% of 16 year old girls do. Boys are more likely to draw male scientists at any age (3). Why are girls learning that science is associated with men, in a world where it no longer has to be?

Try it, ask your kids to draw a scientist and let me know what age they are and what happens.

Why are talented STEM girls not choosing STEM education?

In STEM sectors we are still finding the majority of applicants for jobs are men. But why? The majority of students in STEM are also male. Why?

Just before students get the chance to choose their specialist subjects, in their early-mid teens, there has been a recorded loss of interest from females in STEM (1). From this point on, the majority of STEM students are male. In the build up to this apparent loss of interest, girls perform equally well in STEM and have for many years. In some areas they perform better. So, why do they lose interest and drop the subjects?

The cause of this is not thought to be education. Though textbooks still predominantly feature pictures of men. Teachers are trying to counteract gender bias in the way they contextualise the subjects. For example, some teachers are making sure they use both genders in the way they describe real world examples of scientific theory. The cause is thought by many to be societal expectations and preconceptions.

Is there still a legacy of gender bias in our culture?

Do you remember The Bechdel Test? It was created to test the presence of women in movies. There are three simple measurements;

(1) The movie has to have at least 2 women.

(2) Those women have to talk to each other.

(3) The movie has to be about something other than a man.

If you watch a film from the 80s, you’ll be surprised how few movies pass the first 2 measurements.To date, about half of all films meet all 3 criteria.

We may have come a long way from the origins of The Bechdel Test. However, it doesn’t take a close look at TV to see how prevalent gender stereotypes are in our day-to-day life. Gender stereotypes are perpetuated in soap operas that feature girls struggling in science, and films that explore the discoveries of men that discount their female counterparts. (If you want more examples, see my previous article on Women Leaving Tech.)

As parents we want our children to be the best of themselves, and if that includes getting them into STEM, we need to counteract the discouraging message they are getting from our culture.

In the US, studies have shown girls start to lose interest in STEM as early as 8 years old. So the interest isn’t suddenly lost just before college. As parents, a curiosity in STEM needs to be built into how we play and interact with our daughters from a much younger age. We can normalise women in STEM and make it an option welcoming for women who will thrive in STEM.

10 Ways To Get Your Daughter Excited About STEM

Here are my top tips that I’m trying at home to get my daughter excited about STEM.

If you try these at home, let me know how it goes. I don’t know if my daughter will be a STEM heroine one day, but I’m going to give her a chance to be, if it suits her.

1. Keeping Girls in STEM: 3 Barriers, 3 Solutions, Edutopia 2019 https://www.edutopia.org/article/keeping-girls-stem-3-barriers-3-solutions
2. 6 Things
  Parents Can Do to Get Their Daughters Excited About STEM, Brightly https://www.readbrightly.com/things-parents-can-do-to-get-their-daughters-excited-about-stem/
3. 50 Years of Children Drawing Scientists, Edutopia 2019 https://www.edutopia.org/article/50-years-children-drawing-scientists

Is your Shortlisting Gender Neutral?

Ironing out gender bias in the recruitment process.

By Rose McCarter-Field

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How to Get More Female Applicants

Advertising Job Roles to Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

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How to Get Buy Into the Gender Equality Movement

Company Stakeholder Engagement

By Rose McCarter-Field

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How to Write a Gender Inclusive Job Description

5 Top Tips for Getting more Female Applicants

By Rose McCarter-Field

Redefine your ‘essential’ and ‘desired’ criteria

Are the words you use elitist or inclusive?

Check your pronouns!

Share insights into the experience of working for you and your company.

Get women involved in writing the role descriptions.

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Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do?PART 4

How to Promote Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

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Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do?PART 3

How to Retain Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

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Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do?PART 2

How to Recruit Women

By Rose McCarter-Field

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Gender Equality in Tech. What can HR do?PART 1

Key Factors to Creating Gender Balance

By Rose McCarter-Field

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10 Ways to Get Your Daughter Interested in STEM

And why it's important to start now.

By Rose McCarter-Field

Why is it important for us to engage our daughters in STEM subjects?

Why are talented STEM girls not choosing STEM education?

Is there still a legacy of gender bias in our culture?

10 Ways To Get Your Daughter Excited About STEM

Experiment at home

Find day-to-day hidden opportunities

Let them get to know the tool drawer, box or shed

Encourage curiosity playing

Put their passions at the forefront of play and learning

Encourage a growth mindset

Watch your gender language

Encourage them to trust their instincts

Don’t let your confidence affect them

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Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 4

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 3

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 2

Gender Equality in Tech.
What can HR do?
PART 1