AI Could Be Making Women Sound Less Senior at Work
Here’s the uncomfortable career advice: stop asking AI to “make this nicer.”
A new study from Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that the way you prompt AI can change how sophisticated, formal, and authoritative your final message sounds.
And some of the language patterns more commonly associated with women—including “I think,” “maybe,” “can we,” “we,” and expressive words like “wonderful” or “exciting”—were linked to simpler, less formal AI-generated workplace writing.
The researchers tested 854 prompts across GPT-4, Gemma, Mistral, and Llama. Prompts containing women-associated language generally produced responses with less sophisticated vocabulary and lower grade-level readability.
The striking part?
It wasn’t the user’s gender that mattered. It was the language in the prompt.
So if you tell AI:
“Can we put together a really nice email to let the team know…”
you may get something like:
“Exciting news! Happy developing!”
But a more direct prompt such as:
“Draft a concise email notifying the team…”
can produce language that sounds more restrained and professional.
My advice as a career advisor: don’t change your personality. Change the instruction.
Women shouldn't have to eliminate warmth, collaboration, or politeness from their communication to sound competent.
But when you're using AI for job applications, executive emails, performance reviews, negotiations, or high-stakes workplace communication, don't assume the model will automatically preserve your intended level of authority.
Instead, add explicit instructions:
“Keep the tone professional, confident, and sophisticated. Preserve my meaning and warmth, but avoid unnecessary hedging, excessive enthusiasm, or overly casual language.”
Or simply:
“Make this sound like a senior professional—not more aggressive, just more precise and authoritative.”
That distinction matters.
The bigger problem isn't that women use words like we, maybe, or I think.
The problem is that AI may interpret those signals differently—and turn them into weaker professional writing.
So don't let an AI assistant accidentally downgrade your executive presence.
Use AI to sharpen your voice, not stereotype it.