“‘Ambition’ is a dirty word for gender-neutral job adverts” read a Telegraph headline this weekend. It joins ‘active’, ‘confident’, ‘independence’, ‘leader’, and many other words defined as ‘masculine’ – words putting off women from applying for jobs in droves, apparently.
Instead, ‘feminine’ words such as ‘kind’, ‘dependable’, and ‘cooperative’ are the order of the day. There are even automated online tools courtesy of job sites such as Totaljobs to check gender bias in your recruitment ads and job descriptions.
As a mid-life working female with an almost-teenage daughter I’m incensed that the society we live in is promoting the idea that confidence, leadership and ambition are positive and aspirational for men but not women.
There’s no denying that cultural interpretations of words, and the concepts they represent, play a part in how individuals respond to them. But we need to teach young women (and men) to be ambitious, to be confident, to aspire to lead – to aspire to fulfil whatever their potential is, in any sphere of life. We want them to aim high, strive to get there and enjoy the journey – and to believe that having those desires is not a dirty secret to feel ashamed of.
My daughter’s school has it right, I think. They aim to turn out confident, ambitious young women who know that they have the power to make their dreams happen whatever they may be – not by pushing others down, but by working hard and lifting each other up.
Instead of avoiding the word ambition why not use it and explain what it means in your business? Attract women (and men) by being a workplace where ambitious people thrive and grow your business by working together, by bringing others with and beyond them.
Expect your candidates to be confident but explain that this means not just dominating a room or blazing a trail but having the confidence to give other voices the floor, to support and nurture all sorts of people, to risk failure, to be human.
Words are powerful, and it’s right to harness them to open all employment doors to all genders. But we need to think carefully before airbrushing traits in or out because of gender connotations. Let’s reclaim words from both sides of gender bias as what we want them, and our workplaces, to stand for – for everyone.
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