“We” versus “You”: Exploring the Extent of Gendered Language in Purchasing and Supply Management Job Advertisements

Kelly, Stephen; Hasche, Nina; Klézl, Vojtěch; Marshall, Donna; Stek, Klaas

Abstract

This paper explores the use of gendered language in purchasing and supply management job advertisements across three English-speaking countries. We use secondary data from a global job advertisement website to analyse the extent to which gendered language is used. We explore if agentic, traditional masculine wording, or communal, traditional feminine wording, is used at different hierarchical levels of advertising for purchasing and supply management jobs. Our findings show that there is no significant evidence of a glass-ceiling effect. However, there may be evidence of a sticky-floor effect due to the communal language used in the assistant buyer and buyer job advertisements, which decreases significantly at higher levels. Agentic language use remained constant across the levels. We also found that certain agentic words are more often featured in senior-level advertisements.

Citation

Kelly, S., Hasche, N., Klézl, V., Marshall, D., & Stek, K. (2024). “We” versus “You”: Exploring the Extent of Gendered Language in Purchasing and Supply Management Job Advertisements. International Journal of Procurement Management, 20(3), 365 - 383. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJPM.2024.138966

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 7, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 5, 2024
• Publication Date: Jun 5, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 3, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 6, 2025
• Journal: International Journal of Procurement Management
• Print ISSN: 1753-8432
• Publisher: Inderscience
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 365 - 383
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJPM.2024.138966
• Publisher URL: https://www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=ijpm