The document discusses research from Appcast analyzing over 473,000 job ads regarding the impact of gendered language. They found that generally, job ads without male- or female-coded words ("gender-neutral") performed best with higher application rates, more applications, and lower costs per application. However, for some job functions like IT, including some female-coded words worked better. The recommendations are to align the language approach with strategic priorities like cost, volume or diversity, and to test different language combinations and analyze the results on an ongoing basis.

1. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Removing Gender Bias
in Job Ads

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Today’s Speakers

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Lori Sylvia
Founder and CEO
Rally
Heather Salerno
SVP, Marketing
Appcast

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About Appcast
● Appcast is the global leader in programmatic recruitment
advertising technology and services.
● We optimize job ads.
● We were founded in 2014, have offices in the US, Canada, UK
& Belarus, and in 2019, Appcast became a subsidiary of
Germany-based StepStone.
● Our research (and product) is powered
by access to millions of data points...
610M
Job ads
7.4B
Clicks
1.2B
Applications

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Largest community for Recruitment Marketing,
Employer Branding & Candidate Experience
#1-rated virtual conference for Recruitment
Marketing held in May and December

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What you’ll learn today
• New research that reveals how gender-neutral language results in the
lowest CPA and the most applications
• That said, for certain job functions, the results are nuanced
• Specific strategies to improve recruitment outcomes
• Live Q&A

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● 2011 study by researchers at Duke University &
University of Waterloo: Evidence that Gendered
Wording in Job Advertisements Exists and Sustains
Gender Inequality1
● “Social dominance theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999)
contends that institutional-level mechanisms exist
that reinforce and perpetuate existing group-based
inequalities... We propose that gendered wording (i.e.,
masculine- and feminine-themed words, such as those
associated with gender stereotypes) may be a
heretofore unacknowledged, institutional-level
mechanism of inequality maintenance.”
●
1. Gaucher, D., Friesen, J., & Key, A. C. (2011).
Evidence That Gendered Wording in Job
Advertisements Exists and Sustains Gender
Inequality. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 101(1), 109-128.
The background...

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What is gendered wording?
● Not explicit/obvious; this is subtle
● Word association at an unconscious
level due to stereotypes and socialization
● Job seeker processes job ad and asks:
○ Am I who they’re looking for?
○ Would I fit in?
○ Do I even want this job?

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For example...
Job Ad for a Sales Manager
“We are seeking a self-confident leader to
drive aggressive sales growth. Must be an
independent individual with superior
decision-making capabilities and a
readiness to tackle the challenges imposed
by a competitive market.”
The academic study
found that women were
less likely to apply for
jobs when job ads
include “masculine-
themed” words.

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Appcast’s inquiry
● Appcast decided to investigate
impact of gendered wording on
candidate acquisition behavior
and costs
● Appcast analyzed more than
473,000 job ads from August
2020 to understand impact.

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Important Caveat
We would also like to acknowledge that while this study
looks at two genders, we recognize there is a full
spectrum of gender identities that are not exclusively
masculine or feminine.

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Does gendered wording in job ads impact key
recruitment metrics?
Cost Per Application
(CPA): The cost to acquire
an application from an
interested job seeker.
Apply Rate (AR):
The conversion rate from a
click on a job ad to the
completion of an application.
In general, as Recruitment Marketers, we want a
high Apply Rate and a low Cost Per Application.

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The business case
for gender-neutral
job ads
Job ads without male- or female-
themed words (we call these ads
“gender-neutral”) result in higher
Apply Rates (ARs), more
applications and lower Cost per
Applications (CPAs).
Gender-neutral ads resulted in:

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What about “gendered” job functions...

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We then asked:
Are there
differences by job
function & historical
employment
trends?

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First, a look at “predominantly-male”
job functions
● Job ads with gender-neutral language get 145% more applications per job
at a 16% lower CPA than job ads with both female- and male-coded
words.

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Data from “predominantly-female”
job functions...
● Job ads with gender-neutral language have the lowest CPA
● However, job ads with female-coded words have a higher Apply Rate, and they
get 62% more applications per job; the trade-off is a 14% higher CPA than
gender-neutral job ads.

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The surprise?
Gender-neutral job ads don’t always win.
Within the predominantly-male
IT / Tech job function:
● Job ads that included female-coded
words had the highest apply rate and
the lowest CPA (20% lower than job ads
with male-coded words).

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Another example - from “predominantly
female” job function
Within the predominantly-female
HR job function:
● Job ads with male-coded words got
143% more candidates, but they
have the highest CPA (37% higher)
● If increasing the number of males in
HR is important to you, you might
need to pay more.

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Recommendation #1
Align your approach with your strategic
priorities. Are you trying to optimize for cost,
for volume, or for diversity?

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Recommendation #2
Test, Analyze, Revise, Repeat
Test and get data. In place of synchronous AB testing:
● Run language combination A for 2 weeks,
● Run language combination B for 2 weeks,
● Review the granular-level data to find out:
○ Which received more applications / higher Apply Rate
○ Which received better Cost Per Application
○ Which received more gender diversity*

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Don’t go it alone
Find a partner who can
provide granular-level
views of job ad data you
can use to test and optimize.

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Takeaways
1)In general, job ads without male- or female- coded
words perform best.
2)At the individual job function level, there are some
cases where including female-coded or male-coded
words can improve some recruitment metrics; but
align your approach with your priorities.
3)Test, analyze the data, revise, repeat.

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Thank you!
Up next… Q&A

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Q&A
Lori Sylvia
Founder and CEO
Rally
Heather Salerno
SVP, Marketing
Appcast

28. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Removing Gender Bias
in Job Ads
Thank you!