Thought I'd share this article in the DNA that I came across:
Research confirmed 77% of the total ads that had a gender specific term recruited only females (Anand, 2013). Least gender stereotyping was observed in jobs that required specialised skills and technical education like IT, engineering and medicine.Secretary/front office assistant, telecaller, sales(man) and manager claimed the top spot in gender stereotyping.
Gender stereotyping in recruitment ads for receptionists ranged from the benign ‘Receptionist only – Female’ to comments regarding age and attractiveness ‘beautiful and broad minded(F) office assistant and personal secretary’, ‘up to 25’ (Anand, 2013).
Receptionist has not just been relegated as a women’s only zone. Recruitment advertisements have objectified the kind of women recruiters prefer. Ads have portrayed receptionist as decorative pieces in the lobby, behind the front desk of corporate offices, young beautiful and easy on the eyes.
A similar sort of story was depicted by the data on recruitment advertisements for telecaller and data entry operator position. Next to the ‘FEMALE TELECALLERS’ rubric was the image of a girl talking on the hands free. Now, even though there wasn’t any mention of the age or physical attributes, but the picture certainly said everything the recruiters wanted to convey. Sales and field jobs were earmarked as the boys-only section, with keywords like ‘field boys’ and ‘sales boys’.
What do you think as recruiters in India do we need to eliminate such blantant stereotyping?
