Discriminatory advertisements under the SDO

Under the SDO, any advertisement which indicates or might reasonably be understood to indicate an intention to discriminate is unlawful. This means the advertisement, when taken as a whole, must not indicate such an intention unless the job is one for which sex is a Genuine Occupational Qualification (GOQ) or unless one of the legal exceptions applies so that the discrimination would not be unlawful.

This intention may be attributed even without such obvious words as "male driver" or "female typist", and can be inferred where single-sex words are used, for example, "waiter", "salesman" or "stewardess", unless the advertisement contains an indication to the contrary. For instance : "This post is open to both men and women", or to pair words with the other sex equivalents, i.e. "waiter/waitress", "saleswoman/salesman" or "steward/stewardess". Where there are no feminine (or masculine) equivalents commonly in use, one alternative would be to use gender-neutral job titles, for example, "camera operator" instead of "cameraman".

Employers should also check that advertisements are available to both sexes. Therefore, an advertisement should not be only published in a magazine of which the target readers are men, or women, only, or be displayed in a place to which only one sex has access. Nor should any drawings, real life examples or portrayals of serving employees be shown in an advertisement in such a way as to give the impression that one sex, as opposed to the other, is sought or preferred by the employer.

If services of employment agents are needed, employers should ensure that the agents know that the vacancy is open to persons of either sex. Where vacancies are filled by promotion or transfer, they should be advertised to all eligible employees in such a way so as not to restrict applicants from either sex.

If vacancies are not advertised and recruitment is by word of mouth, employers must ensure that the recruitment exercise is as open as possible, particularly where the exercise relies solely on word of mouth of existing employees, in a certain department of the company, where the staff are all of one sex.

Source: Equal Opportunities Commission