Success Story · Gender Equality

How to promote gender equality in leadership roles?

We redesigned a financial institution's job postings to increase women's applications, without affecting men's.

+49%in women's intent to apply for leadership roles
Client
Financial institution · Colombia
Services
Behavioral Design · Experimental Validation
Method
Experiment with real users
Sector
Banking and financial services
The challenge

Few women were applying for leadership roles

The institution faced an underrepresentation of women in leadership positions and wanted to increase their applications for executive roles.

A critical factor was the ambiguity of the job descriptions, which often discourages potential candidates. On top of that were perceptions and implicit barriers limiting gender diversity at senior management levels. The goal: create a more inclusive and equitable environment that would promote greater participation of women in leadership roles.

What we did

Four job postings, one experiment

We designed four versions of a job posting based on behavioral science and measured the real effect of each one on intent to apply and the emotions it generated when read.

1

Control posting

Ambiguous, incomplete information, as a comparison point.

2

Uncertainty reduction

More specific, concrete information about duties, requirements, and benefits (uncertainty-reduction principle).

3

+ Equality message

The same principle as above, plus a message spelling out the gender equality opportunities the organization offers.

4

+ Video of a female leader

Uncertainty reduction plus the video of a female leader, to reinforce women's role as role models. This was the winning strategy.

Why an experiment

Most people pick the version that sounds best. We measure it.

You can debate in a meeting which posting will work best, or launch it and cross your fingers. A controlled experiment does something different: it compares several versions with real users and measures which one actually moves the needle, and by how much.

That way you scale the version that proved it works, with the numbers behind it.

How it's usually decided
Opine
Pick the version that wins the room.
Launch and wait
Publish it without knowing if it worked.
How we validate it
Experiment
Four versions, real users, randomly assigned.
Scale the winner
With the effect size already measured.

Debating which version wins is quick and cheap. The experiment is what gives you the answer with evidence.

What an experiment gives you
Does it actually work, or does it just sound good?We measure the causal effect of each version with real users.
Which element is doing the work?We isolate each change's contribution: clarity, the equality message, and the video.
What's it worth to scale it?You know the effect size before investing in the change.
What if one version does worse?You find out in the test, while you can still fix it.
How we measured it

We randomly assigned participants to one of four versions of the posting (a controlled trial). Each version added one element on top of the previous one: clearer information, then an equality message, and finally the video of a female leader. By comparing the groups, we measured the real effect of each element on intent to apply and on the emotions it generated. That's how we knew exactly which combination to take to production.

Results

What moved the needle

+46%
in overall intent to apply
+49%
in women's intent to apply
53%
felt positive emotions (joy, gratitude, calm, happiness, pride, or hope) and no negative ones

Figure 1 · Willingness to apply, by posting

Chart: willingness to apply rises from 52.5% (ambiguous posting) to 76.4% (with uncertainty reduction + video of a female leader).

Figure 2 · Emotions generated by each posting

Chart: the posting with the video of a female leader generates 53.1% positive emotions and no negative emotions.
The insight

The most effective strategy combined uncertainty reduction with the video of a female leader. Giving clearer information already increased intent to apply for both men and women; adding the equality message raised it further and reduced negative emotions; and the video was what generated the most applications and identification.

For decision-makers

Lessons for designing solutions

Clarity in job postings, combined with equality messaging and female role models, increases women's applications for leadership roles without affecting men's applications.

A key finding for behavioral design: audiovisual media can deliver more information without triggering cognitive overload. These results gave the organization a concrete basis for designing more effective job postings and promoting gender diversity in its leadership.

Have a behavioral challenge to measure?

Let's design the experiment that gives you certainty before you decide.