• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

2

Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less

3

Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’

1

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

2

Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less

3

Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
MPWCommentary

The resume gap: Are different gender styles contributing to tech’s dismal diversity?

By
Kieran Snyder
Kieran Snyder
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kieran Snyder
Kieran Snyder
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 26, 2015, 6:33 AM ET
Profile on Education Group Edu-Futuro
ARLINGTON, VA –NOVEMBER 17: A resume form that students of Edu-Futuro worked on at the Clarendon Education Center in Arlington, VA. November, 17, 2012 in Arlington, VA.(Photo by Craig Hudson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)Photograph by Craig Hudson — The Washington Post/Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

A couple of months back, one of my friends asked for feedback on her resume.

It was a beautifully presented document. She has strong experience in building software and building teams. She included all her relevant job titles, background about her education and interests, and her many awards. But as I looked over her resume, I came to a disconcerting conclusion: though she was impressive, I wouldn’t have hired her based on her resume.

I have long been interested in patterns of gendered language. Last year I published a text analysis of gender bias in performance reviews, and in my day job, I make software that measures bias in job listings.

Looking at my friend’s resume, I started thinking: Do men and women present themselves differently in these critical hiring documents, and could I measure the differences?

Several weeks later, I’d collected 1,100 technology resumes in all, 512 from men and 588 from women. They include recent college graduates and seasoned leaders over 20 years into their careers. They work in engineering, technical marketing, business development, product management, design, and a range of other roles.

I found stark differences between how men and women write their resumes, differences that have ramifications for the hiring managers and anyone who is concerned about the lack of women in technology.

Here’s what I found.

Women’s resumes are longer, but shorter on details. Women’s resumes are long; just 19% of women submitted resumes that fit onto one page, in contrast to 61% of the men. The women’s resumes average 80% more words than the men’s.

Yet when it comes to providing detail about previous jobs, the men present far more specific content than the women do.

Everyone’s resumes include their former job titles, but women are significantly more likely to summarize their prior work at a high level rather than describing their roles in detail. 91% of the men include bulleted verb statements that describe their achievements on the job, but only 36% of women do.

For instance, consider how William and Emma describe their respective roles as Senior Software Engineer. Emma’s resume reads:

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER, 2011-2013.

Highlights on the delivery team included working on a new automatic tracking platform, partnering with product management and marketing, and hiring four new team members. I am also listed on three patents for my work during this period and was recognized in the company-wide Emerging Leaders program.

By contrast, William describes the same role by providing a bulleted list of specific responsibilities:

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER, 2010-2013.

  • Researched, architected, and implemented new customer feedback system. Designed A/B testing framework for the system and supervised the work of a junior engineer in its implementation.
  • Drove product demos and positioning with the marketing team. Included rapid prototyping on a short timeline.
  • Organized company-wide Hackfest and oversaw productization of winning ideas from junior engineers.

Their resumes are representative of the men and women in this study. The men are more likely to delineate their concrete achievements as unrelated facts, while the women generally create a narrative that is cohesive but light on detail.

Women lead with their credentials and include more personal background. On average, the women’s resumes cite 7 personal distinctions apiece, while the men cite 4. This includes academic distinctions such as summa cum laude or Phi Beta Kappa as well as professional prizes and awards. Women are also more likely to include professional accolades dating back to the start of their careers.

Most resumes in the study use standard sections, including Professional Experience, Education, and Skills. However, while 36% of the women also include novel sections, such as Continuous Learning and Personal Attributes, fewer than 3% of the men include this type of content. Women are also twice as likely to include professional summaries at the top of their documents.

Men and women include an Interests section in about equal proportions, about 45%. This section includes everything from volunteer experience to skydiving. But here too, women provide more color; 85% of the men who include Interests restrict it to one line, whereas women’s Interest sections average three.

These differences have big implications for hiring managers. The men and women in this study have similar backgrounds. The resume gap reflects differences in how they present themselves, not in their experience or credentials. The women tend to tell their stories in summary, while the men let the facts speak for themselves.

Both resume styles reflect skill sets that teams need. If you want to ship products, you need people who focus on the precise execution of concrete goals. But if you want to ship products that people will buy, you also need people who turn a varied set of features into a cohesive user narrative.

Here’s the problem, though: The tech industry, which is not coincidentally heavily male-dominated, is far more equipped to appreciate precise execution. This is not because it is the only valuable skill set, but because it is easier to quantify and more well-understood.

This places an extra burden on women looking for tech jobs to be mindful of their resume communication style. But when they do that, everyone loses: if only one set of skills is valued in the hiring process, teams are less effective and products are worse.

The real call to action here is for hiring managers. If you want top talent, you need to recognize different resume communication styles and the skill sets behind them. Managers who get this right in the hiring pipeline will build better teams and better products.

gender-bias-2

Kieran Snyder is the CEO of Textio, a machine learning company that analyzes job listings to make them more effective. She holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, and has published widely on text analytics and technology. Her last piece for Fortune was about the “abrasiveness trap,” how men and women are described differently in performance reviews.

Watch more business news from Fortune:

About the Author
By Kieran Snyder
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in MPW

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in MPW

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America’s $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
SuccessMacKenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America’s $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 hours ago
‘We are in agony’: Today Show host Savannah Guthrie begs public for help as reports surface her missing 84-year-old mom might be dead
North AmericaMedia
‘We are in agony’: Today Show host Savannah Guthrie begs public for help as reports surface her missing 84-year-old mom might be dead
By The Associated PressJune 24, 2026
17 hours ago
rp
CommentaryLaw
Cooley CEO: Big Law won’t survive if it treats AI as just an efficiency tool
By Rachel ProffittJune 23, 2026
2 days ago
astronaut
Commentaryspace
NASA just named an all-male crew for ‘Artemis III’: what’s a woman to do?
By Savanah F.S. Bray, PhDJune 22, 2026
3 days ago
gg
PoliticsElections
‘People are tired of hearing what government can’t do’: Democratic Socialists surge nationwide
By Matt Brown and The Associated PressJune 20, 2026
5 days ago
With the exits of Apple’s Tim Cook and Dow’s Jim Fitterling, the Fortune 500 is losing two groundbreaking gay CEOs—leaving just one 
C-SuiteLeadership
With the exits of Apple’s Tim Cook and Dow’s Jim Fitterling, the Fortune 500 is losing two groundbreaking gay CEOs—leaving just one 
By Phil WahbaJune 20, 2026
5 days ago

Most Popular

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic
Success
Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
Retail
Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
24 hours ago
Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
Asia
Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 hours ago
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
2 days ago
Trump’s international student crackdown kicked off a domino effect that could shave nearly $500 billion off the economy
Economy
Trump’s international student crackdown kicked off a domino effect that could shave nearly $500 billion off the economy
By Tristan BoveJune 24, 2026
20 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.