‘Use their, not he’ – Malta marketing guru warns others to stop assuming one thing in business

Mark Debono, a digital marketing advisor, has warned against the seemingly unconscious bias of talking about business owners.

“This may be a Malta-specific gripe, but can we get past using the male gender in this way when speaking publicly in general terms?” he said.

For example, “we offer support for the business owner who wants to optimise his operations.”

“[Men], (it’s almost always us men who do this), there is a non-gender specific word we can use to talk about someone whose gender we don’t know or isn’t really important. Their. Just use ‘their’,” he continued. 

“It’s like a ladybird level of English language knowledge but being all-inclusive in the way we speak can really set one apart from others who speak with a male bias, which maybe they don’t even know they have or notice, but it’s there.”

It becomes, ”We offer support for the business owner who wants to optimise THEIR operations. It’s nice and friendly, does the job, still perfectly clear, and inclusive to all. Or indeed, preferably, make it even shorter and simpler,” Mr Debono clarified.

Unconscious bias leads many people to assume that business owners are men, a stereotype rooted in traditional gender roles that associate leadership and entrepreneurship with masculinity. 

Studies, such as Schein’s (1973) “Think Manager – Think Male” paradigm and its replications, demonstrate that managerial traits are still more strongly linked to men, even as societal attitudes evolve. Research by Kanze et al. (2018) further highlights how investors evaluate male and female entrepreneurs differently, often favouring men due to implicit biases.

Media representations reinforce this trend, with reports like Getty Images’ 2021 analysis showing that women are underrepresented in business-related visuals, perpetuating the assumption that entrepreneurs are male. 

Even in hiring and networking, experiments like Bertrand & Mullainathan’s (2004) resume study reveal that gender influences perceptions of competence and authority. These biases have real-world consequences, from funding disparities to everyday interactions where women in leadership roles are mistaken for non-decision-makers.

A lot has been done today, and more women enter entrepreneurial roles than ever, but the journey is still upward.