WWYD - job advert

[wwyd1786]

Would the following phrase in a company's style guide put you off applying for a job there?

'should avoid implying, however subtly, that there are only two genders.'

WWYD?

Now, if theyd said sex instead of gender, i wouldnt bother applying.

@arnielinson that is what I thought too. There are only two sexes, but genders? It has been puzzling me!

I would contact them point out that there are two sexes and it's a protected characteristic

But I wouldn't work for them

I would think they are trying to be politically correct and failing, which would make me think they are only paying it lip service, which in turn would make me wonder what else they only play lip service too...

Difficult. I was outraged recently when I started a new job (household name employer) and was asked to confirm both my gender and my gender identity. I’m in two minds whether to raise it but don’t want my card marked so early. Very annoying that so many places just seem to have rewritten the equality act for their own ends. With the above - there are indeed multiple gender identities. There are only two biological sexes. I think I would consider asking for clarification on whether they meant gender identity as a protected characteristic.

was asked to confirm both my gender and my gender identity.

Surely that would have been in the form of an anonymous equality monitoring form?
My work (nhs) and professional body both have equality questionnaires that are sent out when you join and also sent for updating from time to time.
Every question has the option "prefer not to say".
I will state my race, and if the option is sex based female/male state my sex but everything else I prefer not to say. I personally think my gender, sexuality and religion are all irrelevant to my work and fall into the NOYB category.
These may be protected characteristics and I would expect not to be discriminated against but I'm not supplying the information.

I wouldn't apply.

Though they're quite right that there aren't just two genders. There are three: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

This phrasing you quoted is wierd, so whoever wrote it must think they mean that there are more then two sexes, because even small children at school these days know that there are 9 million different genders to pick from..

Not sure how seriously you are asking this question. A job is a job. Your financial security and your career trajectory matters.

Only you know what other job options you have, what this particular job means for you and how much this aspect of it might affect you, or how much scope in your role you might have to try to change this policy if you took the job. Some of that you couldn’t know without taking the job anyway.

From my own personal experience, workplaces embracing this agenda tend to be sexist in other ways, but equally companies who don’t even think about genderism can be sexist as well, and some you wouldany expect can be quite pro-woman. And workplace culture comes from colleagues as well as leadership, though leadership is fundamental to giving the steer.

I’d say workplace sexism is rife (particularly evident if you have kids at home, which you haven’t specified) so we all need to be ready to stick up for ourselves, campaign where we can, move jobs to look after ourselves, keep our heads down, whatever we need to do at work.

I look up a company’s Equality and Diversity policy if when I move jobs because if I encounter a problem working there in this area, i’d need to refer to that. You could see if that helps you decide.

What’s their deal with this, from your knowledge of them? Are they ignorant, naïve, misogynistic, terrified not to get told to DIAF on social media, trying to push social boundaries, drastically misled about the reality of biological sex?

Does ‘style guide’ mean the rules for what you yourself would have to write if you took the job?

@FannyCann - yes declining to answer is obviously an option. But it would still be preferable for the correct questions to be asked in the first place.

@ChattyLion yes, I'd have to comply with the style guide in this role. It doesn't mention any other equality issues, e.g. being anti-racist, anti-homophobic, etc, although of course those go without saying.

I agree with PPs that it's strange wording. It also seems a bit of a red flag that this is the only diversity/equality issue raised in the Style Guide - everything else is about using plain, concise English, use of subtle humour, etc.

Thanks for all of your replies!

Well they may not have very clear thinking about sex and gender (like a lot of employers) but if they can define ‘subtle humour’ in a style guide that’s quite impressive

@chattylion