February 17, 2025
Linda Blaser
Paper published on how job ad wording affects women’s career decisions
Research that began as a Richter Scholar Program project four years ago with Farhan Ahmed ’24 under Assistant Professor of Business Cassondra Batz-Barbarich was recently published in the Journal of Personnel Psychology.
“ Do Words Matter? The Impact of Communal and Agentic Language on Women’s Application to Job Opportunities” was co-authored by Batz-Barbarich, Ahmed, and Assistant Professor of Management Nicole Strah at UNC Charlotte’s Belk College of Business.
The paper examines how the language used in job advertisements influences women’s perceptions of workplace fit and their likelihood of applying. The study specifically looked at the effects of communal language—emphasizing collaboration and support—versus agentic language—emphasizing competition and independence—in real-world job postings.
Their findings suggest that job ads using agentic language tend to attract fewer female applicants. However, these effects disappear when accounting for the gender composition of the industry, whether the field is already male- or female-dominated.
The Journal of Personnel Psychology is a periodical dedicated to international research in psychology as it relates to the working environment and the people who “inhabit” it.