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Many of us are talking about gender-neutral job descriptions these days. But how about gender-neutral job TITLES?
Gender-biased job titles are so prevalent that Ongig now offers a job title bias checker in our Text Analyzer software. After all, if you show gender bias in the job title, a candidate might not even read the rest of your job posting.
Note: This article is part of our ongoing series called Job Titles: The Definitive Guide.
Take a look at job boards and news articles and you’ll find that many common job titles still use the word “man” in them. Search Indeed for “salesman” and you’ll find 277 job openings with that title.
A total of 1,140 jobs on Indeed mention “salesman” somewhere in the job description.
Gender-biased titles/language start at a very early age. BYU English professor Delys Snyder says:
“When children hear a job title that has a…m-a-n ending, and you ask them to draw pictures or talk about who’s doing that job, they will pick the one that matches the gender of the word.”
source: Sexist Job Titles and the Influence of Language on Gender Sterotypes
Here’s a list of 25 everyday job titles that might benefit from gender-neutralization. We suggest an alternative gender-neutral title for each.
| Instead of this… | Consider this… | |
| 1 | Anchorman | Anchor |
| 2 | Assemblyman | Assemblyperson |
| 3 | Businessman | Businessperson |
| 4 | Cameraman | Camera Operator |
| 5 | Chairman | Chair, Chairperson |
| 6 | Clergyman | Minister, Pastor |
| 7 | Congressman | Member of Congress |
| 8 | Construction Man | Construction Worker |
| 9 | Councilman | Council Member |
| 10 | Craftsman | Artisan |
| 11 | Crewman | Crew Member |
| 12 | Doorman | Door Keeper, Door Attendant |
| 13 | Fireman | Firefighter |
| 14 | Foreman | Supervisor, Boss |
| 15 | Garbage Man | Trash Collector |
| 16 | Handyman | Maintenance Person, Fixer |
| 17 | Longshoreman | Stevedore |
| 18 | Mailman | Postal Worker, Letter/Mail Carrier |
| 19 | Maintenance Man | Janitor, Caretaker |
| 20 | Patrolman | Police Officer |
| 21 | Pizza Man | Pizza Person |
| 22 | Policeman | Police Officer |
| 23 | Salesman | Salesperson |
| 24 | Stuntman | Stuntperson |
| 25 | Weatherman | Meteorolgist |
Changing “man”-titles is not going to happen overnight. I know some of the “consider this” alternative titles above are more clumsy to say.
But some employers are already taking action on gender-neutral job titles. Check out “The Marine Corps is making 19 job titles gender neutral”. And gender neutral job titles is such a popular topic that it’s already got its own Wikipedia entry (“Gender marking in titles”).
Note: Thank you to Writer’s Relief for many of the gender-neutral job title suggestions.
I wrote this article about gender neutral job titles because I’m CEO of Ongig, the recruiting platform that boosts quality candidate applications including diversity. Ongig optimizes your diversity recruiting through job description text analysis, job description rewriting, video, branding and much more.
ps: Before I hit “publish” on this, the WordPress blog platform I’m using to write this recommended I replace “salesman” with “sales rep” — how cool is that! Progress!
If you enjoyed this article, you might also check out our articles on the best Sales Titles and Software Titles.
You might also check out these 4 Diversity tools to write more inclusive job titles and job content overall.
Why I wrote this?
We here at Ongig are on a mission to transform your job descriptions to attract the most diverse and top-tier talent. Ongig’s Text Analyzer software removes gender bias and other bias from your entire job description including (of course) your job title. Please request a demo if you’d like to learn more.
