Good sociological research is characterized by the fact that it can examine the major subjects of the subject on the basis of smaller studies. For example, the issue of gender inequality: it is well known that the German labor market is characterized by pronounced gender-specific segregation into various “typical” professions and a clear dominance of men in management positions. How is it maintained, how is this inequality reproduced? Sociology, roughly speaking, offers two explanations for this: discrimination and self-selection. So that women are excluded from certain parts of the labor market or that they exclude themselves. The first explanation is easier to use for labor market countermeasures. The second is more problematic because when women actually make up their own mindNot wanting to work in certain (then male-dominated) professions seems to be a deliberate inequality. But isn't that discrimination? And behind the male dominance in management positions is it actually the wish of women not to strive for such positions?
The Nuremberg sociologists Andreas Damelang and Ann-Katrin Rückel have now investigated this question using job advertisements, because these form an interface between the two explanatory approaches. Are women already discriminated against by the choice of words and expectations of an advertisement, or do they make a pre-selection themselves? The authors were able to test this by showing their study participants fictitious job advertisements (so-called vignettes). Of course, they assumed that women would rate job advertisements with gender-sensitive job titles as more attractive than those with masculine language. In addition, according to the hypothesis, they would also prefer job advertisements with stereotypical female characteristics in the job profile. But the study also assumedthat women value jobs with flexible working hours and that they find advertisements without managerial responsibility more attractive than those with designated responsibility for employees. In 2019, the vignettes were presented to a total of 224 selected study participants, who were between 25 and 40 years old, all of whom were employed full-time and who had not yet had any personal responsibility.
Gender sensitive language is only the first step
The results of the study are not spectacular, but they do provide important clues as to how inequality specific to the labor market can be reduced. Above all, however, they leave no doubt that language itself is involved in the (re-) production of social inequality. Because women clearly regard gender-sensitive advertisements as more attractive. More important, however, are the contextual features of the position: the working hours and the compatibility of work and family are crucial. It also has a motivating effect if the job posting can already refer to female role models in the company. However, the authors also note that, despite the great importance of flexible working hours for their assessment of a position, women “do not actively avoid time-consuming career paths”. That means,that it "makes no difference whether a position offers excellent career opportunities with prompt assumption of managerial responsibility or not". One cannot therefore say that women exclude themselves from management positions, for example because they did not trust themselves to do so. No, it is the expectation of not being able to combine such positions with responsibility for children that prevents women from applying.
The study also provides another result: The hypothesis was confirmed namely that women also preferred advertisements with stereotypically feminine characteristics in the job profile. So they tended to go to jobs that expected the applicant to have “communal” qualities, as opposed to those with “agentic” qualities, according to the authors. They translated these profiles in the tenders into formulations such as “team-oriented” versus “independent” working methods or “motivate” versus “challenge”. So it was important for the respondents to find gender roles in the job advertisements. Women look for jobs for which stereotypically feminine traits are expressly required. The authors cite as a recommendation for a practice that promotes women,that companies formulate their job advertisements "linguistically mindful".