Job opportunities are frequently marked by the presence of gender-biased descriptions concerning the characteristics of the desired applicants. Consciously or unconsciously the wording adopted by recruiters can often be tainted with terms that are culturally more associated with male or the female gender, and for this reason, lead to self-selection bias from the potential applicants. Whereas the employability and the job opportunities accessible to women have been in the public concern and debate for years, the matter of gender bias in job descriptions is a problem does not affect only women. In the minds of both recruiters and applicants, the association of a given gender to some professions is still very common, therefore limiting the attractiveness upfront of some opportunities for many. Moreover, these challenges are bidirectional in the sense that they are imposed on both future candidates and employers and/or HR managers. At times, simply the way in which an advert for a job vacancy is showcased may, unwillingly to the one who creates it, makes it so that, for example, more people from the male gender apply despite the qualifications required. By the same token, throughout the recruitment process, many of such biases persist, leading to uncomfortable, and often unfair job interviews and again obstructing inclusive access to job opportunities. This project aims to contribute to the reduction of gender bias in communication processes in the job market, notably in the development of job offers, and cv from potential job applicants. To this end, it sets up to develop tools to raise the awareness about the existing bias in such contexts, as well as to offer guidelines and tools to support employers and job applicants for the conduction of more equitable recruitment practices. The tools, methodologies, and materials produced during the execution of this project aim to contribute to the qualification of that job applicants and employers, in order to be better prepared to identify gender bias related to the job market so that they are then able to minimise the impact of such bias in a future job opportunity. The products of this project will contribute to reaching the priorities of social inclusion by promoting gender equality in job access.
The project O'Bias developed knowledge and tools that contribute to the mitigation of unconscious gender bias in communication processes in the job market, notably in the communication of job offers. The purpose was to develop tools that are suitable to be used in training contexts as well as for professional self-development, that contribute to the development of the capabilities for the identification of implicit bias in recruitment. The project builds on previous knowledge about the importance of words and expressions in communication in job contexts, notably lists of words that can be more appealing to a given gender, but that were to the best of our knowledge, exclusively available in English. As such the project was also designed to extend such knowledge to other European languages, by means of resources, and online tools training materials. making these results accessible for wide use by professionals, recruiters, educators and trainers, professionals, etc. The results developed are a contribution to raising awareness about the existing bias in such contexts, and offer hands-on tools to support employers and job applicants for the conduction of more equitable recruitment practices.
The project O’Bias, aims to contribute to more equal access, of individuals to professional opportunities in the job market, despite of their gender. The project is aligned with the priorities and concerns that have been inscribed in the European policy agendas for a more inclusive and gender-balanced society. The motivation for the project is supported by the observation of gender inequalities in job contexts, in Europe, referred in European sources such as the Gender Inequality Index, which reports persistent gender inequalities in work domains. In the specific context of job opportunities and recruitment processes, communication is frequently marked by the presence of gender-biased descriptions concerning the characteristics of the desired applicants. Often unconsciously the wording adopted by recruiters can be tainted with terms that are culturally more associated with the male or the female gender, and for this reason, lead to self-selection bias from the potential applicants. Gender bias in job descriptions is a problem that does not affect only women. In the minds of both recruiters and applicants, gender bias about some occupations is still very common and limits the attractiveness upfront of some opportunities for many.