Despite being a women-dominated profession, the human resources industry is failing to set an example in attracting women to senior leadership roles due to job adverts containing masculine language and a lack of EDI and flexible working statements.
Research by Nottingham Business School, part of Nottingham Trent University, with Newcastle University Business School, examined the wording of more than 150 adverts for HR roles, including occurrences of agentic traits or ‘getting ahead’ (masculine) and communal behaviours or ‘getting along’ (feminine).
Findings show that as the HR role salary or title seniority increases, the proportion of words categorised as masculine – such as leadership, deliver and decision – in the job adverts increases.
In contrast, adverts for entry level and junior roles, traditionally filled in HR departments by women, used a broader range of feminine words like support, responsibility and trusted.
This finding suggests that leadership roles move away from the supportive nature of the profession and towards a focus on business acumen and patriarchal leadership, potentially hindering women’s representation at senior levels.
Even in cases where senior‐level job adverts were expressed in neutral or feminine terms, there was limited or no mention of other factors that would encourage women applicants, such as EDI statements or promotion of work‐life balance.
Such omissions could indicate that the ‘ideal’ candidate demonstrates male stereotypical characteristics, that is, not ‘burdened’ by family, and may reinforce existing stereotypes which deter women from applying to senior roles.
Dr Maranda Ridgway, Associate Professor of People and Inclusion at Nottingham Business School, said: “Human resources is seen as the custodian and driver of equality and wellbeing practices, yet in senior-level job adverts these commitments appear tokenistic or ‘tick‐box’ rather than a reflection of the organisation’s culture.
“The profession should be leading by example. Instead, the gendered language we found in job adverts is likely contributing to women’s underrepresentation in senior roles—even within a women‐dominated profession.
“Urgent and careful attention needs to be paid to job adverts to reduce instances of hidden gender bias, and statements of equal opportunities and flexible working should be embedded in job adverts rather than mentioned cursorily.”
The study also found that there is room for improvement in the representation of salary, with 8% of the adverts studied failing to detail the salary amount. With research showing that no explicit salary statement often results in women accepting lower wages, it is also recommended that specific wage details are included in all adverts.
‘Leading’ by example? Gendered language in Human Resource job adverts has been published in Human Resource Management Journal.
