‘Ambition’ is a dirty word for gender-neutral job adverts

JOB descriptions on a government agency site are to stop using words such as “challenging”, “ambition” and “leadership” in a bid to attract more female candidates.

The Institute for Apprenticeships (IFA), funded by the Department for Education, is piloting a scheme where it will use gender-neutral language on the “standards” it publishes for apprenticeships in the digital industry.

If this is successful in increasing female

‘Women are deterred from applying for something that has a lot of masculine language’

applicant numbers, the scheme could be rolled out more widely.

“Women are deterred from applying for something that has a lot of masculine language,” said Jo Morfee who is advising the IFA on the project. “We are striving for gender neutral language or probably leaning towards being more feminine as it doesn’t put men off.”

She said that the choice of wording can have a huge impact on the gender of applicants.

“Only 17 per cent of women have jobs in the digital industry,” she said. “I believe we can solve this partly with the language we use.”

Online tools can be used to ensure that “feminine and neutral” words are used, such as “understand”, “kind”, “honest”, “dependable”, “cooperative” and “support”.

Meanwhile, the tools highlight the “masculine” words that should be avoided, such as “active”, “decisive”, “leader”, “ambition”, “challenge”, “objective”, “competitiveness”, “independence”, “confident” and “intellectual”.