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Despite being a women-dominated profession, the human resources industry is failing to set an example in attracting women to senior leadership roles due to job adverts containing masculine language and a lack of EDI and flexible working statements.
Research by Nottingham Business School, part of Nottingham Trent University, with Newcastle University Business School, examined the wording of more than 150 adverts for HR roles, including occurrences of agentic traits or ‘getting ahead’ (masculine) and communal behaviours or ‘getting along’ (feminine).
Findings show that as the HR role salary or title seniority increases, the proportion of words categorised as masculine – such as leadership, deliver and decision – in the job adverts increases.
In contrast, adverts for entry level and junior roles, traditionally filled in HR departments by women, used a broader range of feminine words like support, responsibility and trusted.
This finding suggests that leadership roles move away from the supportive nature of the profession and towards a focus on business acumen and patriarchal leadership, potentially hindering women’s representation at senior levels.
Even in cases where senior‐level job adverts were expressed in neutral or feminine terms, there was limited or no mention of other factors that would encourage women applicants, such
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