An unlikely hire: Improving the success rate of ‘gender-incompatible’ job applications

Research Group

Centre for Societies and Groups

Proposed supervisory team

Dr Magdalena Zawisza

Theme

STEM, HEED, gender stereotypes, work, job applications, stereotype content model

Research subgroup: Applied Social Change Hub

Summary of the research project

Women still consist about 29% of STEM workforce (gove.uk, 2023) and men about 15% of HEED work force (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). This has consequences for gender wage gap as STEM careers are amongst the best paid ones. One way of addressing it is for women to apply for such jobs more often. However, research shows that applying for ‘gender incompatible jobs’ comes with a penalties and research on how to overcome these is lacking.

This PhD project will aim to investigate how to improve hire-ability chances of candidates applying for gender-incompatible jobs (e.g. STEM for women or HEED for men). It will test and extend the SCM model building on my previous work in the field of gender advertising (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza-Riley, 2019) and that of Mitchell et al. (2023) in organisational psychology.

Reportedly the most successful people are seen as both warm and competent – the ‘golden quadrant’ of social perception (Fiske at el., 2002; Aaker et al, 2012). Is that true for personal advertising such as CVs on LinkedIn? It may well depend on the extent to which warmth and competence are compatible with the job domain. E.g. tech jobs may favour emphasising competence while health care jobs warmth (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza-Riley, 2019). This project will test this possibility and aim to provide further support for an extension of the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2002) to job advertising context. It will also thus test methods of improving hire-ability prospects through tailoring job profiles (e.g. on LinkedIn) accordingly (Moss-Racusin et al., 2021).

This PhD project will use quantitative methods of investigation relying heavily on online experimentation (e.g. using Qualtrics or Gorilla). It will require development of experimental materials such as bogus LinkedIn profiles or CVs and measurement of outcome variables pertaining to hire-ability (Moss-Racusin et al, 2012). It can focus on a wide range of job domains and communication channels.

Where you'll study

Cambridge

Funding

This project is self-funded.

Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.

Next steps

If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.