Social Media and Truth

I think that social media sites are great tools for obtaining credible information, if used correctly. However, I have a hard time using Facebook for these purposes. For me, Facebook is somewhere I can go to catch up on my friends and family and not somewhere I catch up on news or good articles. I actually use LinkedIn and my Twitter feed for that.

Hamman, S. (2007, February 25). We can do it! Rosie the riveter. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/mQG6e2

I was on Twitter and an article by Elle Magazine entitled, “Scary New Research Says Most Job Listings Are Designed to Repel Women,” caught my eye for many reasons. First, I minored in Women Studies so these topics intrigue me. Second, the words in the title “scary” and “repel” are good attention-grabbers. Last, the subject matter seemed appropriate for me since I am going to grad school to change careers. I will eventually have to start searching and applying for jobs. In the article, Matthews (2014) states that there are certain words in job descriptions that turn women off as in “assertive”, “independent”, or “aggressive”. Other words as in “sociable”, “responsible”, and “dedicated” attract female applicants. The source used in this article was a study done by the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM). Matthews (2014) explained that the researchers gave, “260 men and women differently worded postings for the same job to see how each gender reacted to the changes in the vocab” (para. 2). The results showed that the majority of women were “overwhelmingly” comfortable with the latter group and men did not seem to be affected by either word group.

Although I may not completely agree with the results based on my own attributes, I do believe it is true because I checked and it is a credible study. The only thing that would make the study better was being clear on where the test was done. TUM is located in Germany which means cultural factors may influence the results. The study states that it teamed up with researchers in New York City to do a test regarding leadership skills, but did not clarify the location for the job study test. Would they have received the same results in America or a different country? Our culture, economy, and society have a lot to do with who we are and where we are in our careers. The Pew Research Center analyzed U.S. Census data and found that about 40 percent of American homes include mothers who are the sole or primary breadwinner (Kim, 2013, para. 2). I, myself, am in a relationship where our gender roles just happen to be switched. My fiancé loves to cook and I HATE it. He is the one that makes an amazing dinner for us every night. Instead, I love to work. I love having a challenging, yet rewarding career.  Even though many people in our society may not feel that the woman should be the breadwinner of the relationship or even the primary financial provider, it works for us. Plus, this set up is happening all over and it is on the rise, but I can definitely understand both sides of the situation. However, I feel that this should not hold women back when it comes to the qualities and attributes they would like to have. Women should not be intimidated by the words used in the study and instead turn them into positive traits.

What else do I find true regarding this article? Professor Claudia Peus from the Chair of Research and Science Management explained, “A carefully-formulated job posting is essential to get the best choice of personnel" (as cited in Matthews, 2014, para. 4). I agree. I think that employers should be completely honest in job postings of what they are looking for. There’s been too many times where I have applied for a job and during the interview the job was completely not what I had expected based on a posting that was either too vague or extremely inaccurate.

Kim, S. (2013, May 29). Record number of female breadwinners, according to Pew. ABCnews. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/record-number-female-primary-breadwinners-show-stark-differences/story?id=19280418

Matthews, N. (2013, April 3). Scary new research says most job listings are designed to repel women. Elle. Retrieved from http://www.elle.com/news/culture/scary-new-research-suggests-job-postings-are-repelling-women-not-men