Soft skills and hard numbers: Gender discourse in human resources

Abstract

The cultural rise of ''big data'' in the recent years has pressured a number of occupations to make an epistemological shift toward data-driven science. Though expressed as a professional move, this article argues that the push incorporates gendered assumptions that disadvantage women. Using the human resource occupation as an example, I demonstrate how normative perceptions of feminine ''soft skills'' are seen as irreconcilable with the masculine ''hard numbers'' of a data-driven epistemology. The history of human resources reflects how assumptions of a biological fit with an occupation limit what women can convincingly describe as her skillsets. However, challenging this cannot stay within the confines of the occupation itself. To undo sexist thinking, it is necessary to understand the broader networks of patriarchal power that dictate how value is defined in corporate environments, especially within other high status professions in business.

Face Validity In ESP: A Quantitative Student Validation of an Engineering ESP Approach

“…The rejection of a feminised view of ECS, as signified by a mean of 3.94 on Feminisation (SLI 10), may be an indirect signal of the progress being made against the historical construction of Engineering as a masculine profession, consisting in what is known as "hard skills", whose characterisation has been recognised as the main factor in the underrepresentation of women in STEM disciplines and professions (Phipps, 2002as cited in Du Toit & Roodt, 2009, and which negates the social value of gender equality. Instead of a technical distinction, Hong (2016: 3) characterises the division between soft skills and hard skills as a gendered division, whereby "soft skills" is directed into an alignment with femininity, and "hard skills" with masculinity, and then followed by the devaluing of the "feminine skills" by tending to associate them with less prestige, lack of intellectual rigour, and only with the Humanities, as a trope of devalued knowledge. Undoing the diachronic and synchronic effects of sexism and elitism is, as highlighted in the prescribed book by Ingre (2008: 5-6), an important goal in Engineering education and professional practice.…”

Big Data in the workplace: Privacy Due Diligence as a human rights-based approach to employee privacy protection

“…Employees might not be informed about data analysis due to knowledge asymmetry. An analysis might contain errors, result in misrepresentation/bias of individual employees or groups of employees (Hong, 2016) and dehumanize human interaction. 3.…”

Application of Technical and Soft Skills in the First Job Experience by Accountancy Graduates in the Philippines: Implications for Accounting Curriculum Development

“…Investing in skills that will be useful in 5 or 10 years is a smart move toward securing a position in the workforce. Hard skills, it is said, can be learned, but soft skills, such as attitude, mentality, and people management skills, are the characteristics that distinguish us from a machine of codes and algorithms, and will be the most important in the future workplace (Hong, 2016).…”