Understand gender bias

Before you begin the job evaluation and classification, it is important to learn about gender biases. This section will help you reflect on your own assumptions and get ready to identify and prevent gender bias throughout the process.

Why?

Gender bias refers to attitudes, assumptions or stereotypes that influence how we perceive work typically performed by women or by men.

If not properly addressed during a job evaluation, certain job characteristics that frequently appear in women-dominated jobs may be overlooked in the assessment. Conversely, job characteristics that are prevalent in men-dominated jobs may be double counted or overemphasised.

Flip and learn

Flip each card to learn more about job characteristics that are frequently undervalued or overlooked in women-dominated jobs.

  • Skills

    Active listening and conflict mediation, cultural awareness, relational and coordination skills, non-verbal communication, manual dexterity

  • Responsibility

    Being responsible for the health, safety and emotional well-being of others; acting as the organisation’s first point of contact with the public; training and orienting new staff

  • Effort

    Emotional effort to de‑escalate tense situations, lifting adults or children, working simultaneously for several people or departments, monotonous or detail-oriented tasks

  • Working conditions

    Exposure to corrosive substances or materials (e.g. during cleaning), restricted movement, awkward positions, working in isolation, irregular or unpredictable work hours

How?

  • Understand that gender biases can affect job evaluation and classification because, even if they are often unconscious, they influence perceptions of the value of the work and shape decisions about pay.
  • Understand that gender bias can creep into the way job evaluation criteria are defined, applied or interpreted within an organisation, leading to indirect discrimination.
  • Understand that gender bias in job evaluation affects pay when undervalued jobs, often dominated by women, are assigned to lower pay grades, despite requiring similar levels of complexity, responsibility or effort as higher-graded jobs dominated by men.

What is direct and indirect discrimination?

Direct discrimination

One person is treated less favourably on grounds of sex than another person is, has been or would be treated in a similar situation.

Indirect discrimination

An apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice that puts persons of one sex at a particular disadvantage compared with persons of the other sex, unless that provision, criterion or practice is objectively justified based on a legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary.

Check your gender biases

Recognising how we think about work is the first step towards a fair and gender-neutral job evaluation. Use this checklist to identify unconscious gender biases in how you perceive the value of work and how you perceive common work demands in women-dominated jobs and men-dominated jobs.

  • 1. I recognise that psychosocial and emotional effort (e.g. calming upset patients, managing difficult customers) is as demanding as physical effort (e.g. lifting, manual labour).

  • 2. I consider mental effort (e.g. sustained concentration, multitasking, constant vigilance) to be as demanding as physical effort (e.g. standing for long periods, repetitive movements).

  • 3. I have questioned why I might value jobs involving responsibility for financial resources more than jobs involving responsibility for people’s well-being.

  • 4. I recognise that jobs requiring planning and organisational skills are as valuable as jobs requiring technical knowledge.

  • 5. I recognise care-oriented leadership skills (e.g. mentoring, supporting team well-being, resolving interpersonal conflicts) as important leadership strengths.

  • 6. I consider interpersonal and communication skills to be real skills that require training and practice.

  • 7. I recognise that soft skills are learned and developed, not innate personality traits or ‘common sense’.

  • 8. I value physical skills such as manual dexterity and fine motor skills (e.g. keyboard skills, handling delicate materials, giving injections) as skilled work.

  • 9. I consistently use gender-neutral job titles (e.g. ‘cleaner’ not ‘cleaning lady’, ‘maintenance worker’ not ‘handyman’).

    10. I pay attention to whether I use different language to describe the same work when it is done by women or by men.

Results

If you ticked all or the majority of the boxes, you already have a good awareness of common gender biases in how work is valued. The gender-neutral job evaluation toolkit will help you strengthen and apply this awareness systematically across the evaluation.

If you left any boxes unticked, review those areas before using the toolkit. These are common blind spots that can lead to undervaluing certain types of work, particularly work that involves emotional effort, coordination or soft skills.

Downloads

For more detailed guidance, download the step-by-step toolkit and check Tool 0.

EU-wide guidelines on gender-neutral job evaluation and classification: Step-by-step toolkit