As part of the No More Female Professionals (NMFP) campaign run by Inspiring the Future,
an advert was recently created by marketing agency MullenLowe, which challenges the use of female gender tags at the beginning of job titles, such as Female Builders, Female Surgeons and Female CEOs.
According to the campaign, inserting a female gender tag to the beginning of a job title ‘shows how the language people use contributes to unconscious bias'. Rather than using a gender neutral job title such as Builder, Surgeon and CEO, the campaign argues that by adding gender tags, we are changing the way these jobs are perceived. In reality, the responsibilities of the job should not change because a woman is doing it but adding a gender tag could cause people to view the job differently.
This is why we believe that by removing gender tags, equal opportunities are created for both men and women. The NMFP campaign, which cleverly invites people on-board with their controversial title, is also aimed at school children who ‘start to form gender stereotypes about career aspirations from as young as six years old’. The campaign therefore invites working people to sign up to
www.inspiringthefuture.org and volunteer in schools to talk to children about their careers, what inspired them to follow a certain path and what educational route helped them to get there. The campaign has similarities to the Year of Engineering 2018 campaign which is run by the UK government, aimed at inspiring the next generation to think about careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). A report from EngineeringUK shows there is a huge lack of diversity in these sectors, with 91% of the workforce being male.
By introducing children to a variety of jobs as well as to the people working in them, it shows ‘future generations that gender or socio-economics should not determine what they aspire to be’ according to the NMFP campaign. Bluestream Recruitment are an equal opportunities employer and are supporting the Year of Engineering campaign by organising the Harwell Campus and Chilton Village STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) themed family fun day on the 9th June this year. The event encourages children and young adults to gain an interest and understanding of the STEAM industry through interactive workshops and activities such as paper rocket making, giant bubble making, examining meteorites and mini robots, investigating genes and much more.