As a result of the progress made in recent decades, the virtues of gender diversity in our organizations are increasingly well understood.  For instance, a recent study from Cambridge Judge Business School showed that gender-balanced teams perform better than their more homogenous peers at all times, but especially during the kind of adverse circumstances we’ve been experiencing during the Covid pandemic.

Despite evidence such as this, we still live in a world in which just 25% of senior managerial posts are held by women.  This lack of female representation at the highest level causes significant difficulties for women who are applying for such roles.  New research from the University of Toronto reveals that women often attempt to downplay their feminine qualities during their application, but this often backfires as they come across as unlikeable as a result.

The authors highlight how women are only too well aware of the various stereotypes that exist around women in the workplace, and can often try to describe themselves in ways that flout that stereotype.  For instance, they may remark that they’re not sympathetic, or they’re forthright rather than collaborative.  It’s a strategy that doesn’t tend to work.

Impression management

The researchers had previously studied ethnic discrimination in the workplace, and especially how Asian and Black job seekers had tried to “whiten” their applications by removing any obvious racial cues and even changing their names on their resumes.  This tactic appeared to work, as it resulted in more callbacks than minority applicants who stayed true to themselves.

The same does not appear to apply for gender, however.  The researchers examined what is known as social-identity impression management (SIM), which is commonly used by job seekers to create a positive image of themselves to employers.  For instance, older applicants may be worried about ageism, so will emphasize things to try and make themselves appear more youthful.

The researchers reveal that this approach has been found to work in some areas, so it’s interesting that attempts to downplay one’s femininity when applying for male-dominated roles do not have the same impact as candidates seem to be penalized for violating gender norms.

Being yourself

The researchers also analyzed actual admission data from an elite MBA program that is typically dominated by male students to see if their hypothesis holds up in a real-world setting.  As before, they were interested in whether female applicants were attempting to manage how they are perceived in their applications, and what impact this was having on the success of their application.  In total, they analyzed 1,215 applications, of which 30% were from women.

The results show that the use of feminine words did indeed have an impact on the chances of each female applicant getting a callback, with women who used fewer feminine words getting fewer callbacks than their peers who used language that conformed to gender stereotypes.

These findings were further confirmed in a third experiment involving several hundred job seekers who were applying to a hypothetical position.  The roles were either female-dominated (admin assistant), male-dominated (IT assistant), or gender-neutral (sales assistant).  The results showed that women didn’t alter their language when applying for the administrative assistant role but did reduce their use of feminine language when applying for the IT role.

Among recruiters, there was a clear preference for women to use language that conformed to expectations, with these candidates viewed as more hirable than women who used more masculine language.  This pattern wasn’t evident for male applicants, however, as the use of more feminine language actually makes them more likable.

Changing recruitment

So what can recruiters do to make the situation not only fairer but more likely to result in the kind of diverse workplaces that are so valuable?  The authors highlight that the traditional approach taken by organizations has been to implement various leadership initiatives and programs to promote greater diversity.  While these are valuable, the problem often begins at the hiring process itself, with female applicants too often forced to jump through various hoops to try not to succumb to gender biases.

To improve matters, there are various things organizations can do to make hiring more gender-neutral.  For instance, removing names from cover letters and resumes can be a great first step.  They can also adopt a more horizontal evaluation structure that focuses on the attributes of each applicant.  This approach is effective because each specific aspect of the candidates is assessed across all candidates at once.

The research provides further evidence that if we are really to move the needle on diversity then we need to change our organizations.  The benefits are clear for those able to do so.  Now it just needs to happen.