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Do Words Matter? The Impact of Communal and Agentic Language on Women’s Application to Job Opportunities

Cassondra Batz-Barbarich et al.

Journal of Personnel Psychology2025https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000364article
AJG 2ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Abstract: Communal and agentic goal affordances predict women’s perceived fit in and pursuit of work environments. However, an organization’s ability to influence women’s perceptions and pursuit of roles via language signals in job advertisements is unclear. This field study examines the impact of communal (vs. agentic) language in job advertisements ( N = 330 ads; 242 organizations) on attitudes and behaviors of actual job seekers. Results indicate that some agentic and communal cues influence behavior such that the former leads to a smaller proportion of female applicants, whereas the latter leads to a greater proportion. However, results became nonsignificant after controlling for industry gender representation. Our results explore the utility of experimentally explored interventions to determine their influence on real applicants’ behaviors.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000364

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@article{cassondra2025,
  title        = {{Do Words Matter? The Impact of Communal and Agentic Language on Women’s Application to Job Opportunities}},
  author       = {Cassondra Batz-Barbarich et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of Personnel Psychology},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000364},
}

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Do Words Matter? The Impact of Communal and Agentic Language on Women’s Application to Job Opportunities

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.