Overcoming Gender Bias in Career Opportunities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Overcoming Gender Bias in Career Opportunities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Inclusion – equity; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

Job opportunities are frequently marked by the presence of gender-biased descriptions concerning the characteristics of the desired applicants. Consciously or unconsciously the wording adopted by recruiters can often be tainted with terms that are culturally more associated with male or the female gender, and for this reason, lead to self-selection bias from the potential applicants. Whereas the employability and the job opportunities accessible to women have been in the public concern and debate for years, the matter of gender bias in job descriptions is a problem does not affect only women. In the minds of both recruiters and applicants, the association of a given gender to some professions is still very common, therefore limiting the attractiveness upfront of some opportunities for many. Moreover, these challenges are bidirectional in the sense that they are imposed on both future candidates and employers and/or HR managers. At times, simply the way in which an advert for a job vacancy is showcased may, unwillingly to the one who creates it, makes it so that, for example, more people from the male gender apply despite the qualifications required. By the same token, throughout the recruitment process, many of such biases persist, leading to uncomfortable, and often unfair job interviews and again obstructing inclusive access to job opportunities.
This project aims to contribute to the reduction of gender bias in communication processes in the job market, notably in the development of job offers, and cv from potential job applicants. To this end, it sets up to develop tools to raise the awareness about the existing bias in such contexts, as well as to offer guidelines and tools to support employers and job applicants for the conduction of more equitable recruitment practices.
The tools, methodologies, and materials produced during the execution of this project aim to contribute to the qualification of that job applicants and employers, in order to be better prepared to identify gender bias related to the job market so that they are then able to minimise the impact of such bias in a future job opportunity. The products of this project will contribute to reaching the priorities of social inclusion by promoting gender equality in job access.

Project Website

https://obiasproject.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 241610 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO & Country: PT

Project Partners

• G.G. EUROSUCCESS CONSULTING LIMITED
• Stowarzyszenie Edukacja przez Internet
• DOMSPAIN SLU
• C.M. SKOULIDI & SIA E.E.
• WISAMAR BILDUNGSGESELLSCHAFT GEMEINNUTZIGE GMBH
• Inova-Ria – Associação de Empresas para uma Rede de Inovação em Aveiro