OB Research Seminar - Nir Milstein, Bar-Ilan University & research fellow in HEC

Survey-based questionnaires in gendered languages, such as German, French, Hindi, Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew, typically address both male and female participants in the generic default masculine form. This approach might lead to biases among female responders. Recently, questionnaires written in gender-neutral language have become prevalent in these languages (for example, using the "slash" sign) and even in non-gendered languages like English, using the "s/he" style. However, response patterns to questionnaires composed in gender-neutral language, compared to those composed in feminine and masculine languages, have not yet been examined.

In the current pilot study, 266 Hebrew-speaking female teachers answered a questionnaire measuring work-related perceptions and reported attitudes toward the survey, either in a feminine language (n = 92), the masculine default (n = 84), or gender-neutral (n = 90). Results revealed that women reported more positive attitudes toward the survey and even higher job satisfaction when the survey was composed in feminine language. 

In the next step, our aim is to replicate these effects on a more representative sample of women and test them on men and in other languages such as Arabic, French, and German.