Gender versus qualification in hiring knowledge workers : the predictive power of gender in the perceived job suitability of male and female applicants

Abstract

This study considers the predictive power of gender in the perceived job suitability of male and female applicants seeking employment as knowledge workers. Four research questions were generated in order to address the problem statement of identifying if suitability for job fit in the knowledge economy is influenced more by gender or qualification: • Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of male and female potential employees? • Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of less-qualified male and more-qualified female potential employees? • Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of equally morequalified male and female potential employees? • Do managers differentiate between the perceived job suitability of equally lessqualified male and female potential employees? In this simple study, respondents were asked to rank eight candidates’ suitability for a knowledge worker job. The results were collated, cleaned and validated before being subjected to a Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test (for non-parametric variables). The results demonstrated that overall, gender is the better predictor of job suitability, however, the more qualified a candidate is, the less gender can be relied upon as an accurate predictor for job suitability. All the results from this study have been discussed in terms of their suggestions for future research in selection bias in hiring and gender bias.