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Original poster

Gender and Pronouns in Job Application Forms

40 replies

MahoosivePaws · 21/03/2025 12:38

I'm applying for jobs at the moment. It's very tempting to screenshot all of the different confused permutations of sex and gender questions that get asked, so I can show how utterly useless the data being collected is across well respected organisations.

I'm just picking 'prefer not to say' wherever I can - but I have a question to those of you who are involved in recruitment. Is this 'Equal Opportunities' info visible to you? I would hate to think that an application that I work hard on gets rejected by someone who doesn't like how I responded to a question. I've got one today where the pronouns question is mandatory and it's absolutely infuriating.

OP posts:
Annascaul · 21/03/2025 14:53

MrsSunshine2b · 21/03/2025 14:44

The data is anonymised. The data and your application will be immediately separated. The purpose is to see whether the people applying are reflective of wider society and if the people going on to get the job are more or less likely based on protected characteristics.

For example, if half the people who apply are women, but only 20% of successful candidates are women, maybe there is something going on in the application process which disadvantages women. If only 20% of applicants are women then maybe the advert is worded in such a way that women are discouraged from applying.

If 20% of the UK population is non-white, you'd want applications to be reflective of that too, along with LGBT, marital status, disability, and religious affiliation.

About 0.5% of the population are trans so you'd probably expect 1 in 200 applicants to be trans and 1 in 200 employees to be trans. If it's not, you might want to have a rough idea of why that is the case.

Further on in the process, it's used to see whether or not having a PC is a barrier to promotion. It's no good having 50% of your workforce being women, if all of them are low paid admin assistants.

Insisting on people’s pronouns will give no indication of the relative proportions of actual male/female applicants.
It’s meaningless in an equal opportunities setting.

MrsSunshine2b · 21/03/2025 14:44

The data is anonymised. The data and your application will be immediately separated. The purpose is to see whether the people applying are reflective of wider society and if the people going on to get the job are more or less likely based on protected characteristics.

For example, if half the people who apply are women, but only 20% of successful candidates are women, maybe there is something going on in the application process which disadvantages women. If only 20% of applicants are women then maybe the advert is worded in such a way that women are discouraged from applying.

If 20% of the UK population is non-white, you'd want applications to be reflective of that too, along with LGBT, marital status, disability, and religious affiliation.

About 0.5% of the population are trans so you'd probably expect 1 in 200 applicants to be trans and 1 in 200 employees to be trans. If it's not, you might want to have a rough idea of why that is the case.

Further on in the process, it's used to see whether or not having a PC is a barrier to promotion. It's no good having 50% of your workforce being women, if all of them are low paid admin assistants.

Peregrina · 21/03/2025 13:44

How exactly are they monitoring their recruitment (or whatever) for sex discrimination without recording sex?!

They are not. They are fudging it and counting the Lea Thomases of the world as female, thus distorting the figures for any quotas they have for male/female, or e.g. monitoring how female pay rates relate to male rate.

Skyellaskerry · 21/03/2025 13:40

MahoosivePaws · 21/03/2025 12:56

Unfortunately the mortgage doesn't pay itself, so I can't be that picky.

I also think the application form is often on a commercial platform that companies are using - they haven't necessarily built each question out themselves from scratch. But it still feels like sticking my head above the parapet to answer anything other than 'Female' to a gender question or 'Woman' to a sex question or whatever other inappropriate but non controversial option I have.

Show quote history

I completely get what you say @MahoosivePaws

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 21/03/2025 13:38

I never know if putting 'prefer not to say' will get counted as 'no answer' or 'probably trans, just not out'.

Drives me nuts when there's no sex question, only gender. How exactly are they monitoring their recruitment (or whatever) for sex discrimination without recording sex?!

Original poster
MahoosivePaws · 21/03/2025 13:25

It is just bad all round.

If I were a pronoun person, I (if blessed with any self awareness at all) would be concerned about getting rejected from a job by a terrible bigoted person.

As a person who thinks preferred pronouns are ridiculous - I'm worried about getting rejected from a job by a terrible bigoted person (with blue hair).

OP posts:
Annascaul · 21/03/2025 13:20

MahoosivePaws · 21/03/2025 13:17

I don't know that they can be monitoring anything useful. Given that so many people just 'prefer not to say' to every question, it's got to be a pretty useless set of data.

Sounds very ominous though!

It does. What pronouns you insist people use for you shouldn’t be any part of an equal opportunities initiative.

Original poster
MahoosivePaws · 21/03/2025 13:17

I don't know that they can be monitoring anything useful. Given that so many people just 'prefer not to say' to every question, it's got to be a pretty useless set of data.

Sounds very ominous though!

OP posts:
Annascaul · 21/03/2025 12:58

GCAcademic · 21/03/2025 12:41

When I get job applications, the Equal Opportunities information is always removed. It's a monitoring form, not part of the application.

To what purpose are they monitoring??

Original poster
MahoosivePaws · 21/03/2025 12:56

Skyellaskerry · 21/03/2025 12:47

Unless I had to, this would stop me applying as I wouldn’t want to work anywhere that forced this stuff.Its mad these employers for whom recruitment takes time and money would alienate groups of possible good candidates like this.

Unfortunately the mortgage doesn't pay itself, so I can't be that picky.

I also think the application form is often on a commercial platform that companies are using - they haven't necessarily built each question out themselves from scratch. But it still feels like sticking my head above the parapet to answer anything other than 'Female' to a gender question or 'Woman' to a sex question or whatever other inappropriate but non controversial option I have.

OP posts:
cheezncrackers · 21/03/2025 12:53

I never volunteer any information about myself. These questions are always optional or have a 'Prefer not to say' option. I just applied for a job and put 'Prefer not to say' for all E&D questions (your preferred pronouns, gender assigned at birth, gender you now identify with, age, race, etc). Do any of those things have a bearing on whether I can do the job? No. So they can piss off with their stupid questions. Also, I figure if enough of us don't answer them then maybe, just maybe one day they won't bother asking any more.

Stillslowly · 21/03/2025 12:49

Equalities information is always optional and is not part of selecting people for interview. (unless the employer has schemes to guarantee interviews to ,for example, all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria, but then this would be asked about as part of the main application form and not taken from the Equalities form.

Skyellaskerry · 21/03/2025 12:47

Unless I had to, this would stop me applying as I wouldn’t want to work anywhere that forced this stuff.Its mad these employers for whom recruitment takes time and money would alienate groups of possible good candidates like this.

GCAcademic · 21/03/2025 12:41

When I get job applications, the Equal Opportunities information is always removed. It's a monitoring form, not part of the application.