In January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and said that the workplace has become “culturally neutered” and that he wants to bring “masculine energy” back to it. But what does “masculine energy” mean, exactly? It turns out you can measure it.
A lot of this project runs on AI embeddings — models that turn a piece of text into a point in a space with hundreds of dimensions, where text with similar meanings lands close together. But directions in that space carry meaning too. The classic party trick is that if you take the vector for “king,” subtract “man,” and add “woman,” you land near “queen.” A study from 2019 by Kozlowski, Taddy, and Evans called “The Geometry of Culture” turned that party trick into a measurement instrument: take many word pairs that differ only in gender — man/woman, he/she, father/mother — draw the arrow for each pair, and average them into a single, stable gender axis. Then any sentence can be projected onto that axis and scored: how strongly does this language associate with the masculine or feminine pole of the space?
This story does the same thing with the careers corpus. The axis is built from sixteen pure gender-term pairs — and, very importantly, there are no intuition words in the poles. I never told the model that “hardcore” or “relentless” is masculine. The axis is built entirely from words like he/she and father/mother; everything else is projected onto it and scored. If “hardcore” comes out masculine-coded, that’s the training data talking, not me.
The good news about biased training data is that it can reflect our biases back to us. When this story says “masculine-coded” or “feminine-coded,” that isn’t a personal judgment — not “direct communication is for men, therefore companies shouldn’t talk about direct communication.” It is a computed proximity to masculinity: if decades of English text have these concepts mapped to statements made by men, for men, or about men, the embedding shows that. In this particular study, gender bias is the feature, not a bug.
Every sentence of careers-page copy in this corpus is scored on that axis. One square per sentence.
Anduril
Basecamp
Ramp
SpaceX
Engine
Palantir
Netflix
Coinbase
Stripe
Shopify
HubSpot
NVIDIA
Amazon
Meta
Airbnb
GitHub
GitLab
Apple
Salesforce
Starbucks
Uber
Snap
Anduril 1% · 71%
+2.23z · 2025
“By forging strong partnerships with highly innovative defence technology companies like Anduril, we can push the boundaries of technology and develop new concepts to overcome operational challenges,” ”
+2.00z · 2025
“A historic technology deserves a historic effort to execute it.”
+1.91z · 2025
“Thus, we are designing our launch system to support integration with fielded launch infrastructure like HIMARS, Harpoon, and Patriot, or stacked and fielded in commercial shipping containers.”
-1.00z · 2024
“The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers from LEO to GE”
-0.80z · 2025
“One of our team members said it best:”
-0.71z · 2024
“A dedicated team rallying around a shared intention to make a positive impact by creating a safer world.”
Basecamp 3% · 54%
+2.20z · 2018
“And we can’t forget the Fatboys!”
+2.10z · 2022
“In broad strokes, Managers of One thrive at 37signals.”
+1.91z · 2002
“The 37signals manifesto that used to make up 37signals.com is still available here .”
-1.39z · 2021
“If you think any aspect of the process described here could be more efficient, more practical, and result in better actionable feedback for you, please let Andrea know!”
-1.34z · 2024
“Our team works from all over the world, across 5 continents.”
-1.10z · 2026
“Knowing our devices are safe and secure allows us to entrust our work computers with access to sensitive systems like Queenbee, and our internal VPN and remote servers.”
Ramp 24% · 54%
+1.89z · 2026
“If you have talent and drive we will back you like the Medici family backed Michelangelo.”
+1.36z · 2022
“Look for people with strong spikes in critical areas.”
+1.20z · 2022
“And then instead focus on the higher ROI and get more done. “It's really about setting a clear goal constraining the period of time, and then trying to with each progressive period, you go faster.”
-0.76z · 2026
“We ’ re the all-in-one AI finance platform, designed around one simple principle: “ If it doesn ’ t save you time or money, we don ’ t build it. ” The result? 70,000 + companies — from family farms to”
-0.68z · 2026
“Manages $55M in marketing spend at age 23”
-0.51z · 2025
“Join a stellar team built around mentorship, empowerment, and ownership.”
SpaceX 6% · 52%
+1.61z · 2003
“Analytical capabilities in fluid dynamics and heat transfer desired.”
+1.51z · 2004
“You would need to have had responsibility for the design and analysis of a complex mechanical product and seen it all the way through to customer delivery.”
+1.48z · 2005
“Note: Please submit inquiries and applications for the VP of Structures position to jerry.fielder@spacex.com .”
-1.31z · 2020
“We also partner with national and local organizations that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education for K-12 students and educators, with special emphasis on those that serv”
-1.11z · 2019
“PST, becoming the first American spacecraft to autonomously dock with the orbiting laboratory.”
-0.72z · 2020
“It is the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, and in 2012 our Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the Interna”
Engine 4% · 51%
+1.74z · 2026
“Comfort is a signal to probe, not rest.”
+1.70z · 2026
“Unfiltered edge intelligence Leaders pull raw signals from those closest to the work to avoid dilution, spin, and false confidence.”
+1.65z · 2026
“The future of Engine continues to get brighter and the opportunities are limitless.”
-2.34z · 2026
“A cupcake is neither flour and eggs, nor a wedding cake, but it is entirely delightful.”
-1.29z · 2026
“Many of our team members are passionate activists and community leaders outside of their work, and we fully support that.”
-0.95z · 2021
“We’re obsessed with giving our customers the best experience, and we set a high bar every day to make it happen.”
Palantir 8% · 51%
+1.65z · 2010
“We were founded in 2004 by a handful of PayPal alumni and Stanford computer scientists.”
+1.34z · 2026
“Tech culture has fallen into shallow consumerism, lacking a greater purpose.”
+1.28z · 2026
“We built Palantir to ensure the future of the West, not to tinker at the margins.”
-1.30z · 2012
“We’re passionate about making a difference with mission-driven organizations through our philanthropic work.”
-0.77z · 2017
“Humanitarian response organizations are directing resources more effectively to communities affected by natural disasters.”
-0.75z · 2015
“We’re building a future where data can be leveraged to serve people, create value, and improve quality of life.”
Netflix 6% · 49%
+1.88z · 2017
“We tell people not to seek to please their boss.”
+1.75z · 2017
“On a dream team, there are no “brilliant jerks.” The cost to teamwork is just too high.”
+1.71z · 2024
“We believe this approach is the surest path to excellence and long term success.”
-3.32z · 2024
“Imagine working alongside stunning colleagues who are great at what they do, and even better at working together.”
-1.49z · 2022
“There’s lots of love and there are demanding peers.”
-1.36z · 2017
“Our culture has been instrumental to our success and has helped us attract and retain stunning colleagues, making work here more satisfying.”
Coinbase 5% · 38%
+2.27z · 2014
“We hire builders, and this extends all the way to the founders.”
+1.85z · 2014
“When someone has headphones in, this is a signal to the rest of the company that they are “in the zone” and should not be disturbed.”
+1.78z · 2016
“The world was made by people no smarter than you and I.”
-1.13z · 2018
“They are much more than words to us (and we have the emojis to prove it).”
-1.09z · 2021
“Our values are much more than words to us (and we have the emojis to prove it) — they’re what makes Coinbase a great place to work.”
-0.89z · 2017
“We take care of each other, and help each other grow.”
Stripe 8% · 35%
+1.60z · 2023
“The principles articulated here detail the everyday behaviors we focus on, our core traits, and what we expect of our leaders—and all are rooted in the core expectation that Stripes operate with high ”
+1.57z · 2019
“We operate in situations of substantial uncertainty and cannot afford either timidity or recklessness.”
+1.53z · 2020
“Take our CEO Patrick’s advice: The beginning of your career can be very productive if you find the right problems to spend it on.”
-1.19z · 2026
“AI is changing everything about the business ecosystem: from how and which companies get built and grow, to how money moves between them.”
-1.10z · 2026
“AI is changing how the global economy works, how our customers work, and how Stripes work.”
-1.08z · 2017
“In both our products and our people, we aim to reflect, represent and advocate for all of our users, globally.”
Shopify 9% · 35%
+2.40z · 2026
“We hire builders with the same entrepreneurial spirit as the merchants we serve.”
+1.88z · 2026
“People will assume that the act of breaking windows goes unpunished in those parts.”
+1.82z · 2026
“Control means setting parameters, not approving every step.”
-1.91z · 2020
“Yes, we work a little differently but we think that makes space for the challenges and risks that pave the way for real growth. “A relentless focus on our mission is at the heart of everything we do a”
-1.60z · 2026
“We know that there's beauty in simplicity.”
-1.37z · 2021
“We’re astrophysicists, aspiring chefs, parents, salsa dancers—and we channel that range into building a world where entrepreneurship for everyone is more possible than it’s ever been.”
HubSpot 23% · 27%
+1.57z · 2016
“We believe in a helpful, human, and personable approach to doing business.”
+1.32z · 2016
“Our software helps businesses earn the attention of their customers instead of just renting it.”
+1.31z · 2020
“Change is inevitable in the fast-paced world of today’s start-ups and scale-ups.”
-3.93z · 2019
“But, lest we forget, “special” has an alternative definition, meaning “especially important or loved.” And moms, particularly working moms, not only fit this description, but also deserve workplace po”
-2.24z · 2019
“Instead of asking working moms to champion their own cause, we should all be champions of our colleagues, managers, and network of working parents.”
-1.97z · 2021
“This employee resource group is dedicated to just that by managing programs, perks, and a community for families.”
NVIDIA 19% · 24%
+1.35z · 2025
“The project is the boss—even for our CEO.”
+1.28z · 2020
“A powerful new approach to computing was born.”
+1.05z · 2020
“For them, we’ve built the equivalent of a time machine .”
-1.84z · 2025
“NVIDIA supports nine CRGs and support groups for neuro diversity, caregivers, and working parents. “As a co-lead for ADHD NVIDIANs, I know firsthand how it is possible for someone who is neurodivergen”
-1.80z · 2025
“We strive to create an environment where underrepresented groups feel empowered.”
-1.67z · 2025
“But progress goes beyond pay parity.”
Google 32% · 24%
+2.26z · 2021
“It’s funny ... as a dad … the implications of becoming a dad were huge for me as an executive because as a dad you all of a sudden realize that you’re actually shaping the life of a human being, and y”
+1.94z · 2012
“You can be serious without a suit.”
+1.92z · 2023
“MICHAEL BRENNER: This is only the tip of the iceberg.”
-2.65z · 2019
“This year our internship program is on track to welcome our largest-ever cohort of students from backgrounds historically underrepresented in tech. 54.5% of interns identify as Black+ (U.S.), Latinx+ ”
-2.52z · 2025
“Improving breast cancer screening with AI”
-2.51z · 2022
“EVE ANDERSSON: By making our products more accessible, we’re enabling people to learn more, to accomplish more in their lives.”
Amazon 31% · 23%
+1.99z · 2007
“Ownership: Ownership matters when you're building a great company.”
+1.67z · 2017
“Many of the skills and the leadership aptitude refined in the military successfully translate into career paths at Amazon.”
+1.41z · 1999
“Also, since this is very possibly the worst five-year period in history not to have equity ownership, you should know that compensation for all of our openings includes stock options.”
-3.41z · 2017
“Play the video to learn about IWD at Audible.”
-2.31z · 2017
“Amazon hosts Ada interns, and actively hires from the Ada graduate pool.”
-1.89z · 2017
“Watch the video to learn about glam azon.”
Meta 23% · 21%
+1.62z · 2013
“We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.”
+1.56z · 2022
“Building great things means taking risks.”
+1.52z · 2020
“So it's important that we do better on diversity, not only because it's the right thing to do for the country and for the people, but because that's the only way we're going to serve our community the”
-1.66z · 2020
“Through employee development, engagement and in support of recruiting, Latin@ serves Facebook's mission to bring the world closer together.”
-1.57z · 2020
“We’re committed to building a workforce that’s as diverse as the communities we serve, and strive to provide the best possible care and resources to help all of our employees thrive—at work, in their ”
-1.47z · 2020
“Together we foster a sense of community and belonging by sharing our stories with each other, celebrating our diverse culture and bringing awareness to issues that impact Native communities.”
Airbnb 27% · 20%
+1.36z · 2015
“Always be transparent in your company.”
+1.21z · 2019
“Exciting challenges lie ahead—new regions, technologies, and businesses.”
+1.09z · 2015
“Success is measured by pride, not credit.”
-1.44z · 2019
“Airbnb welcomes candidates with backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in tech and offers opportunities to create community in our offices around the world.”
-1.06z · 2023
“We believe that embracing differences within Airbnb's teams is key to promoting innovation and accessibility in our global community.”
-1.04z · 2023
“"Every day at Airbnb, I get to work with the smartest people I know on beautiful technical projects that help share the joy of travel with the rest of the world." "Airbnb is the type of place where yo”
GitHub 29% · 19%
+1.14z · 2021
“Help us build the home for all developers.”
+1.12z · 2022
“The complete developer platform to build, scale, and deliver secure software.”
+0.98z · 2011
“We operate in a culture based on personal responsibility, rather than management, by hiring great people and treating them accordingly.”
-1.11z · 2018
“We’re supporting a community where more than 27 million * people learn, share, and work together to build software.”
-1.08z · 2021
“We’re supporting a community where more than 50 million * people learn, share, and work together to build software.”
-0.94z · 2017
“We’re supporting a community where more than 19 million people learn, share, and work together to build software.”
GitLab 25% · 16%
+1.30z · 2023
“You can explore the handbook to learn more about how we run the company, you can even make a merge request to suggest changes .”
+1.12z · 2022
“This is defined and articulated in our communication guide and handbook usage guide .”
+1.02z · 2026
“These three principles are built on a foundation of Culture of Excellence .”
-2.10z · 2018
“We sponsor events and organizations that focus on increasing diversity in tech (e.g.”
-1.22z · 2019
“With a team spread across almost 60 countries around the globe, we invite diverse perspectives, we document everything, and we collaborate asynchronously.”
-1.21z · 2019
“As a GitLab team member, you can work from anywhere with good internet.”
Apple 30% · 16%
+2.11z · 2009
“Leave your neckties, bring your ideas.”
+2.05z · 2018
“I’m very comfortable identifying myself as gay at work.” Erick wanted to help others feel comfortable, too.”
+1.49z · 2015
“But it also rewards bright, original thinking and hard work.”
-4.00z · 2015
“Many of the program’s alumnae go on to lead computing camps for those who follow in their footsteps.”
-3.99z · 2015
“Learn how you can support or join NCWIT”
-3.55z · 2015
“But with Latinas making up just 1 percent of the tech workforce, there’s a huge opportunity.”
Salesforce 32% · 15%
+1.80z · 2025
“Take risks, stretch your skills, and build something that lasts.”
+1.75z · 2016
“Many years ago now, while on sabbatical in Hawaii, Marc had a vision for a different kind of company – on 1/1/1, but also built around the Hawaiian concept of “Ohana” – which means “family” in Hawaiia”
+1.31z · 2016
“It is the bedrock upon which our company was built and the foundation for all the success that has flowed – and will continue to flow from it.”
-4.04z · 2015
“To learn more, follow @SalesforceWIT on Twitter.”
-2.11z · 2025
“We champion the importance of family care through advocacy, community building, allyship, philanthropy, and education for our members and their allies.”
-1.93z · 2017
“Empowering the diverse workforce of the future through access to education and training opportunities or all”
Starbucks 37% · 14%
+2.03z · 2023
“Over the course of the year, each of these cities will host community meetings to find ways to create pathways to employment and education for youth and returning veterans.</p> <p>“Our community is ke”
+1.92z · 2023
“<p>As racially-charged tragedies unfolded in communities across the country, the chairman and ceo of Starbucks didn’t remain a silent bystander.”
+1.68z · 2010
“Now I ask that you all pass this email around to everyone you passed the last one to.”
-3.00z · 2015
“Thanks to their friendship and the encouragement of others in their support group, Fabiola and Josephine’s lives have been transformed from being homeless, jobless, and extremely sick, to living under”
-2.53z · 2022
“A former barista, Sami <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/sponsored/story/starbucks-art-on-a-mission">is passionate</a> about helping make sure every store feels welcome for everyone – including peop”
-2.36z · 2022
“The company also increases lifetime maximums for fertility benefits under all Starbucks medical plans to $25,000 for fertility services and $10,000 for prescription drugs.</p> <p><strong>Anti-bias cur”
Uber 28% · 12%
+1.44z · 2016
“Because you have to take risks if you want to build the next big idea.”
+1.18z · 2018
“And getting to that bright future means solving some of the most difficult problems of the present.”
+0.98z · 2018
“As we said last year, this is just the beginning.”
-1.50z · 2018
“We hired and activated a dedicated diversity sourcing team to better target key cities across the U.S.”
-1.40z · 2019
“We hired and activated a dedicated diversity sourcing team to better target key cities across the US.”
-1.29z · 2018
“It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of love, and support from colleagues all over the world.”
Snap 37% · 8%
+1.35z · 2020
“This program is just one part of a larger recruiting initiative to help cultivate stronger veteran representation here at Snap.”
+0.97z · 2020
“SnapVets empowers veteran professional development, community outreach, recruiting, and more!”
+0.81z · 2021
“SnapVets builds community for military veterans, dependents, and those who continue to serve.”
-1.93z · 2025
“ERGs offer opportunities for team members to empower and support each other, promote empathy, celebrate the community and share resources.”
-1.76z · 2024
“It's the easiest and fastest way to communicate the full range of human emotions with your friends without pressure to be popular, pretty, or perfect.”
-1.49z · 2020
“They empower us to come together to celebrate a common cause, raise awareness, encourage advocacy, and refine our approach to recruiting.”
Bars show each company's share of feminine- and masculine-coded sentences. Tap a company for its strongest examples (sentences with names or explicit gender terms are skipped here — see methods).
feminine-coded (z ≤ −0.5) neutral band (−0.5 … +0.5) masculine-coded (z ≥ +0.5) one square = one sentence · deeper = further from neutral · hover for the sentence
Four notes on trusting this measurement. First, it passes the tests where the answer is known: occupation terms with heavily male-skewed workforces (infantry soldier, lumberjack) land cleanly on the masculine side, heavily female-skewed ones (kindergarten teacher, nurse) land on the feminine side, and genuinely neutral terms land near zero — that’s also why scores inside the ±0.5z band are shown as neutral rather than over-read. Second, the axis isn’t hostage to any particular word pair: splitting the sixteen pairs into two independent eight-pair axes ranks the corpus nearly the same way. Third, the ranking agrees with an instrument that shares none of its machinery: scoring the same corpus with the published masculine/feminine word dictionary from the job-ads study cited at the end of this story reproduces the company ordering (Spearman 0.66) — a word-counting method and a geometry method, with no shared failure mode, seeing the same pattern. Fourth — deliberately — there is no human-rating backstop here. Asking a human judge whether “bias for action” sounds masculine would re-import the very intuitions this method is designed to bypass; the coding lives in the corpus statistics, so validation is known-answer anchors and split-half reliability, not human agreement.
One caveat belongs next to the chart rather than in a footnote: the coding partly tracks who is doing the talking. Basecamp — famously anti-hustle — sits near the top of the ranking, because assertive founder-manifesto prose (“we don’t do X”) is masculine-coded independent of intensity, while HR-authored benefits copy pulls feminine. Companies whose pages are written in a founder’s voice read more masculine than companies whose pages are written by a communications team, so the fair comparisons in this story are within a register, not across registers. Relatedly, sentences that mention people by name score masculine for a boring reason — “Eric” is a gendered word, the same as “he” — and this story is trying to measure the register, not the roster, so every sentence quoted below is free of names and pronouns. The company numbers don’t depend on this either: dropping every sentence that contains an explicit gender term, and then also every sentence with a likely personal name, reproduces the company ordering almost exactly (rank correlations 0.99 and 0.94).
If it sounds like it isn’t for you
Some careers pages say it almost outright. The register runs from SpaceX’s 2003 hiring criteria to Ramp’s 2026 letter persuading you not to apply — it predates the Netflix deck, which didn’t invent this language so much as make it quotable — and on the gender axis, its sharpest specimens are among the most masculine-coded sentences in the corpus. Coinbase’s homage to the Netflix severance line, “Unremarkable performance gets a generous severance package,” scores 1.8 standard deviations toward the masculine pole. Engine’s culture memo is a fountain of these: “Comfort is a signal to probe, not rest” (+1.7), “Silence is not humility here; it is abdication” (+1.6).
Meanwhile, the one nearly neutral card below is the plainest statement of the idea: Netflix’s “But Netflix is not for everyone, so please read on” scores almost exactly zero. It’s not the sentiment that’s masculine-coded. You can tell people your company isn’t for everyone in neutral language. It’s the performance of it — the hardcore, the hard mode, the not for the faint of heart — that carries the gender coding.
SpaceX · 2003 · +0.54z
“Out of necessity, SpaceX has exceptionally stringent hiring criteria.”
Apple · 2009 · +1.26z
“This isn't your cushy corporate nine-to-fiver.”
Netflix · 2009 · +1.20z
“Unlike many companies, we practice: adequate performance gets a generous severance package.”
Coinbase · 2024 · +1.11z
“You will be pushed beyond what you think you're capable of.”
Netflix · 2024 · -0.10z
“But Netflix is not for everyone, so please read on.”
Engine · 2025 · +1.33z
“Every seat must be earned, and underperformance is addressed quickly and respectfully.”
Ramp · 2026 · +0.64z
“That first year, we hired 60 more brilliant misfits.”
That 2003 SpaceX page, the oldest artifact in this register, also contains the line “SpaceX does not discriminate on the basis of anything but skill.” The axis measures what else the page’s language sorts on: who feels addressed by it.
The ideas companies share, ranked
It isn’t just companies that are gender-coded — the ideas they borrow from each other are. Clustering every sentence in the corpus into recurring concepts and keeping only the genuinely shared ones (at least three companies, two-plus sentences each, no company over 40%) puts the performance canon at the masculine pole — speed, flat structure, rejecting conventional norms — and the inclusion vocabulary at the feminine pole. Each concept is labeled with its own words.
0 = the average careers-page sentence (frozen 20-company baseline). Scores exclude sentences that explicitly mention gender. The axis passes a known-answer test: male-stereotyped occupations (infantry soldier, lumberjack) land on the masculine side, female-stereotyped ones (kindergarten teacher, nurse) on the feminine side, neutral terms near zero. Set aside by an LLM judge before ranking: 7 press-release / product marketing, 20 one company over the 40% cap, 4 diversity-reporting, 1 incoherent, 4 below the sharing floor, 4 navigation / boilerplate.
The two poles earn their coding differently, and the asymmetry is worth saying plainly. The masculine-coded concepts are style-driven: speed and iteration, flat organization, learning from difficulty rarely mention men at all. The feminine-coded concepts are often subject-driven: employee resource groups, pay equity, diversity-and-inclusion copy frequently talks explicitly about women. To separate the two, concept scores here exclude sentences with explicit gender mentions — and the feminine pole survives the exclusion. Employee resource groups barely move (−0.80 to −0.76), and diversity-and-inclusion culture holds at −0.56. Pay equity is the exception that shows the filter working: it softens from −0.95 to −0.66 once the sentences that literally say “women” are set aside, meaning a real share of its coding was lexical rather than stylistic.
One absence from this chart is deliberate: concepts dominated by a single company are excluded (twenty fell to the 40% cap). The most masculine-coded concept in the whole corpus — the severance-and-high-bar-hiring cluster — is one of them: it’s still 74% Netflix’s own voice, so it lives in the Netflix story rather than here, where the subject is the ideas companies actually share.
The turn, over time
Scoring each company’s pages year by year adds the missing axis. In the aggregate, feminine-coded share peaks near one sentence in five across 2019–2021 — the same window in which careers pages inflated care and diversity language — and falls to 14% by 2023, while masculine-coded share reaches its modern peak. Read the curve with one caveat: part of the swing is composition. Ramp and Anduril enter the record in 2021–22 already sounding masculine. The cohort founded into the tight-money era arrives pre-coded, which is a finding about selection, on top of the one about editing.
Share of each year's careers sentences that score masculine-coded (above the line) or feminine-coded (below), with the neutral remainder unshown. Every company is weighted equally; a company-year needs at least 20 sentences to appear. A sentence counts in every year its page carried it. The axis is fixed at 80% so views stay comparable across the toggle.
Show data table
| Year | Masculine | Feminine | Companies |
|---|
Holding the roster fixed sharpens the picture. Among the sixteen companies with enough coverage on both sides of 2022, the median shift is close to zero — most companies did not rewrite their registers. The movement is concentrated: feminine-coded share fell where DEI copy was retracted (Meta, HubSpot, GitLab, Shopify, Google), and masculine-coded share jumped at exactly two companies, Meta and Coinbase, each up roughly 21 points. Meta’s is the largest masculine shift in the corpus — the “masculine energy” pivot, measurable in the careers pages of the company whose CEO asked for it. The companies already at the masculine end — Netflix, Engine, SpaceX, Basecamp — held steady or softened slightly.
This corpus measures language, not outcomes — no promotion rates or pay gaps here. The downstream effect has been measured elsewhere: in a series of experiments published in 2011, women shown job ads that were identical except for gendered wording rated the masculine-coded jobs as less appealing and reported a lower sense of belonging, while their assessment of their own ability to do the job didn’t change. (Men showed no such effect.) Self-selection is a quiet filter: no one is rejected, nothing shows up in the hiring statistics, and qualified people don’t apply.
The complaint that opens this story described a workplace drained of masculine energy. The corpus records something else: this register has been on careers pages since SpaceX’s 2003 hiring criteria, and the companies that lead with exclusion carry the most of it.