Job Titles

Generally provokes a mental image of men

To reach out to all genders, use gender-inclusive options to describe how someone contributes to a company’s mission.

Illustration of pairs of men and women as astronauts, artists, care workers, professors, construction workers

Basic Example

Advanced Example

We use job titles to understand if we’re a good fit for the position a company is looking to fill. And that includes our gender. As many as 79% of jobs ads imply, if unintentionally, the gender of the person expected to do that job. Childhood role models, too, influence who we see when we think of a job. These biases limit candidate pools, pipelines - and the career options and prospects of people of all genders and backgrounds. For an inclusive approach, explore more gender-neutral ways of describing areas of responsibility.

👍

Software development
Software engineering
Software engineer – all genders

👎

Software engineer

Doesn't resonate with

Everyone who identifies as a woman
People in the LGBTQIA+ community
People in occupations and roles historically dominated by another gender
People with an ancestal or cultural background that is not white

Dig deeper

Research suggests that we develop gender stereotypes about occupations at a very early age. Evidence of this bias appears in the speech of children as young as 3 years old. It influences whether we can picture our grown-up self in a particular job and thus our career choices. And it affects how we read job titles, not as reference to an advertised role but as an expression of the level of inclusiveness of a company’s culture. How job titles are phrased subtly influences our perception of anticipated career prospects as well as our sense of belonging. They can signal how open a company is to gender-inclusive promotion practices, how much prestige it attaches to a position, and whether it values diverse perspectives and workplace flexibility. Findings suggest that stereotypically male job titles may lead women to assume the company employs more men than women and that women would not be a good fit for that position. In short, they make a job look less appealing to them.
Replacing gender-coded titles with more gender-neutral options across the organization can be a powerful signal. It communicates to staff and potential candidates that a company is serious about promoting diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging. And it shows awareness of and the willingness to address the organization-level mechanisms that reinforce and maintain existing inequalities at work.