Labour’s branding of ambition as ‘masculine’ is a disturbing revelation
New Labour guidelines telling businesses to rid their job ads of ‘masculine’ terms like ‘ambitious’ is sending completely the wrong message, writes Ronel Lehmann in today’s Notebook
Women don’t need ‘feminine-coded’ job ads
New Labour government guidelines for British businesses advise recruiters to strip out “stereotypically masculine” language – including terms like “competitive”, “entrepreneurial” and “ambitious” – from job advertisements.
The guidance from the Office for Equality and Opportunity suggests that such wording can subconsciously deter women from applying for roles, particularly in mid-to-senior management. Bosses are encouraged to eschew “masculine” terms (dominant, independent, strong, and leader) and replace them with more neutral or “feminine-coded” alternatives.
At Finito, we spend every day working with young job candidates and helping them negotiate the application and interview process. Everyone in the world of education and recruitment wants to ensure that women can thrive at work and businesses find the best talent. We need more women on company boards and in important fields like politics.
This new guidance, I’m afraid, is not the way to do it. Indeed, it seems to me to be wholly counterproductive.
Labour’s women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson says the guidelines are designed to “ensure women can thrive at work” and to help businesses find the best talent by removing “invisible barriers” in the hiring process. But removing words like ambitious and entrepreneurial sends entirely the wrong message. What are we saying to women candidates if we suggest they cannot embody such traits?
These are not inappropriate or exclusionary terms. In my experience, women are just as ambitious and competitive as men – they have equal drive and aspirations. Indeed, Ms Phillipson is known to be fairly ambitious herself – having already run as Labour’s deputy leader and being widely tipped to want to run for Prime Minister in a future leadership contest.
How reductive for a government body to suggest otherwise. Women job candidates do not require wrapping in cotton wool. Ministers’ time would be better spent discussing how to address systemic issues weighing on hiring such as the levels of business taxation and regulation.
Interview tip? Crack a joke
I always tell candidates that humour is a really important part of finding a job. One young woman I knew was working in McDonalds but had always wanted to work in the City, and got an interview at Rothschild & Co. The panel interviewing her asked what age she was when she knew she wanted to work in finance and she said five. When the panel asked why, she replied that she remembered her father getting her to read out share prices from the FT in the back of the car at that age. “Was that difficult?” an interviewer asked. “Yes”, she replied. “The FT was twice the size that I was.” Everyone laughed, and she got the job.
NEET crisis needs solution, not diagnosis
It is all very well for Lord Milburn, the government’s work tsar, to tell us that parents are becoming the ‘invisible welfare state’ for young adults who are less likely to move into work because they can live at home cost free. It’s obvious that the fact that almost one in eight young people aged 16 to 24 is not in education, employment or training (NEET) is a disaster for them and our economy. The time for diagnosis of the problem has passed and what we need now are solutions. As a start, I’d like to see the government incentivise employers to take on young NEETs in shadow work placements to give them a taste of the workplace and a step up.
Auntie must keep up
The BBC has suggested it might support replacing the licence fee with a tax as it battles to make more people pay for its services. Isn’t it time to accept that in a world of Netflix and Amazon Prime, the BBC should move to a subscription model, making additional money from advertising if necessary? At the same time some of its services that contribute to the UK’s soft power, such as international news coverage, could be supported from taxation.
What I’ve been reading
We recently hosted eleventh generation banker Alexander Hoare to speak at a breakfast meeting about his new book Impact Banker, which I thoroughly recommend. It looks at how a family business like his prepares for the 21st century. It has done so by doubling down on the power of relationships and trying to work not just in its own interests but for the greater good. It does not pursue scale, but seeks simplicity and quality.
Ronel Lehmann is the founder and CEO of Finito and an employment expert