We were asked by one of our subscribing forces to look at their job adverts and consider the impact of gendered words on the number of applications.

The study was of all the job vacancies that have run for the force so far in 2024.

We looked at the number of people who viewed each job to read the advert, and then how many of those potential applicants clicked the “apply” button to start the process. A percentage was calculated of applicants to viewers.

This percentage was compared with the number of male gendered words, the number of female gendered words and the total number of gendered words in the adverts.

Even with such a small sample size, the evidence was overwhelmingly clear. The presence of male gendered words reduced the number of people reading the advert then clicking the apply button. See graph below

Although our sampling was totally anonymous, so we don’t know the gender of people looking at the jobs, there is a clear correlation between the number of male gendered words in an advert and people choosing not to start the application process.

Previous research has shown the effect in general job adverts, but this is the first time research has been undertaken directly on a police force’s advert wording and it matches up with the wider findings.
Male gendered words in an advert will reduce the field of applicants for a job, potentially meaning good candidates will be missed.

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