What the Postings Display Out Loud
By analyzing the terminology across different job postings, I find out how employers evade fair hiring policies, and how often appearance is considered during the hiring process.
What Does a Job Ad Really Ask For?
A job posting describes a position.
It can also reveal who an employer imagines in that position.
APPEARANCE
GENDER
HEIGHT
PHOTO
What We Found
Actual job postings showed the same signals identified in our data:
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Photo: “Photo attachment required.”
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Height + Gender: “Men: 178 cm or taller / Women: 165 cm or taller.”
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Height: “Women: 157 cm or taller / Men: 170 cm or taller.”
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Appearance + Gender: “Women with a neat appearance preferred.”
These examples show that appearance, gender, height, and photo requirements are not just abstract categories in the dataset. They are still written directly into real job advertisements.
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Requirements often overlap. Gender, height, appearance, and photo requirements frequently appear together.
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Appearance remains part of the “ideal applicant.” Terms such as “neat appearance” still shape who employers appear to prefer.
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Bias can change form. Even when explicit terms disappear, similar expectations may remain through photos or softer language.