Verified answer

I've never seen a job advert addressed to a specific gender/race etc. However last week I did see one saying 'Female or male applicants welcome' or along those lines, which I thought was strange for them to even write. Of course female or male applicants are welcome- they are legally obliged to accept both gender/sexes.

When I see such ads, they are not specifically addressed to anyone.

Obviously, the employer hopes to appeal to candidates who have experience in the area being advertised for. They are also clearly hoping to attract a woman or minority, most probably due to affirmative action pressure.

I used to work at a place that used such wording in their ads. While they would use that phrase in all ads, some hires were much more "affirmative action hires", than others. For some positions, they hired the most qualified person, regardless of gender or race (though getting a minority or woman was always seen as a bonus). Other positions were basically seen as AA positions, and white males wouldn't even be considered. However, one could not tell from the ads which was which.

Add: There's no "after thought" Such footers on job ads have been thought out and approved by HR departments. They're not just randomly thrown on at the last minute.

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Well, clearly The Patriarchy addresses these things to white, heterosexual men. So, the only way for an employer to be allowed to hire women and minorities is to state it in the job advertisement.

Really, those brave employers are lucky The Patriarchy's Special Enforcement Police don't show up to "fix" them.

Fight the power man! I mean, fight the power womyn!

my concern with things like that is - that they seem to think it is necessary to point it out.

I dont think it is. western society is not racist or sexist.

who are the biggest employers who feel the need to point this out ? governments. and they FAVOUR women and 'minorities' above .. idk, white men I guess. governments actually have 65% female employees- and a disproportionate amount of minorities relative to the general population working for them.

this demonstrates, where they put these signs up - there is clear discrimination. they are hiring, for a large part, based on sex and race.

I have to disagree, that it makes it sound like an afterthought. In my opinion it sounds like they need to meet some quota.

That makes it sound like women an minorities are preferred. Otherwise, there is no need to specify "women and minorities".

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No, it's like "We want to hire women and minorities in order to reach our workplace diversity goals."