"Why Women Don't Apply for Jobs Unless They're 100% Qualified"
By Tara Sophia Mohr
Harvard Business Review, Aug. 25, 2014
https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified
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Mohr digs into the “why” behind the statistic that men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications while women apply only if they meet 100% of them.
First, a caveat. Like any statistic, this isn’t universally true.
Ok, back to Mohr’s piece - which is still fascinating.
Based on a survey of more than 1,000 professionals, Mohr concludes that the barrier to applying is NOT a lack of confidence. In fact, for both men and women, “I didn’t think I could do the job well” was the least common response. (Men = 12.4%; Women = 9.7%)
So if it’s not confidence, what is getting in the way?
Beliefs about the hiring process.
The top answer for both men and women was “I didn’t think they would hire me since I didn’t meet the qualifications and I didn’t want to waste my time and energy.” Nearly half of the respondents — both men and women — gave this answer. (Men = 46.4%; Women = 40.6%)
Another 20% of men and 13.1% of women said “I was being respectful of the time and preferences of the person reviewing applications — they had already made clear who they were looking for.”
And comparable percentages — though flipped by gender (Men = 12.7%; Women = 21.6%) — said something that was similar but reflected the potentially pitfalls of trying and failing: “I didn’t think they would hire me since I didn’t meet the qualifications and I didn’t want to put myself out there if I was likely to fail.”
All in all, 78% of women hold themselves back “for reasons having to do with believing that the job qualifications are real requirements.” “They thought that the required qualifications were … well, required qualifications.”
This is critical. In Mohr’s view, it means that “women don’t need to try and find that elusive quality, “confidence,” they just need better information about how hiring processes really work.”
Or, looked at from another angle, it means there are lots of things businesses (and individual hiring managers) can do to improve the candidate pool.
First, see it as a business issue, not merely a fairness issue. If 78% of your potential customers were artificially and unnecessarily deciding not to do business with you, that would be a huge issue. Isn’t losing 78% of potentially qualified candidates an equally big deal?
Second, in job postings, only include what you really need. You can assess how well candidates meet your “wants” during the interview process.
And finally, when women in your organization aren’t applying proportionately, be curious. Don’t make assumptions about why women aren’t showing up. Get real data, and fix the actual impediments.