The power of language: How rhetoric awareness can combat hiring bias and discrimination

Literary theory can help us understand why hiring managers prioritize some types of job experience over others. (Shutterstock)

I first realized the usefulness of literary theory to the issue of hiring discrimination when I came across an article about a permanent resident struggling to find employment in architecture, her field of expertise, in Canada.

Employment counsellors from a government-funded newcomer program suggested the resident should shave foreign experience off her resume so she wouldn’t appear overqualified to recruiters.