An Evaluation of the Gender Inclusivity of UK Senior Academic Job Advertisements

Previous research demonstrates that small changes to the content of job advertisements can influence an applicant’s perceived fit with the role being advertised and has analyzed the effects of specific features on women. This paper presents an original gender inclusion analysis framework and reports on its use to critically assess 140 senior academic job adverts as an underexplored institutional mechanism that may help sustain gender inequality in academic leadership. This research concludes that such adverts are not gender inclusive, as most do not explicitly encourage nor support gender diversity, and many contain subtle signals that could increase women's perceived lack of fit with advertised roles; 41% of adverts utilized masculine wording, which could deter female candidates; just 15% (n = 21) prioritized women via a positive action statement; specific employee benefits, which could signal support for applicants with (child)caring responsibilities, were not prioritized, with 11% (n = 15) and 6% (n = 9) of adverts promoting family‐friendly policies or an on‐site nursery, respectively, and only 6% of roles were listed with a part‐time working opportunity. 97% of institutes in this research held an Athena Swan Charter award in recognition of gender equality work, suggesting a lack of impact on recruitment and highlighting scope for development of gender‐fair recruitment practices.