There’s a curious phenomenon happening in the marketing industry. Is it a sign of ‘masculinization’?

Engineering is one of the most male-dominated workforces in America. As of 2023, only 16% of engineers in the U.S. were women. Marketing, meanwhile, is an industry led by women: Though it has a more even split, the field still employs more women than men, with 60% of marketing roles in the U.S. held by women.

But a phenomenon in new job listings has some experts wondering if marketing is undergoing a reinvention—one designed to make it a more enticing field for men.

The discourse began when brand consultant Miranda Shanahan pointed out a trend she’s noticed on LinkedIn. “I’m convinced marketing jobs are being rebranded so that boys can do it too,” Shanahan said in a video that’s garnered 1 million views on TikTok.

“We are suddenly seeing the same old marketing roles being given new, technical-coded names,” she said, referencing open positions on LinkedIn with titles like “senior branding engineer,” “marketing engineer,” and “GTM [go-to-market] engineer.”

What are these jobs actually seeking from applicants? Quizlet’s listing for a “UGC (user-generated content) engineer” mentions leading a team of creators, directing content strategy, and having a “deep understanding of viral content and trends”—responsibilities typically associated with marketing roles more so than engineering roles.

Baseten’s “content engineer” opening describes it as “a primarily technical writing position.” Meanwhile, Stable’s first-ever “growth engineer” will be responsible for data analysis, targeted outreach, and managing its marketing assets. Many of these roles also have software engineering and web design components.

Is this history repeating itself?

Shanahan said the situation reminded her of what happened to programming in the mid-20th century. What began as a female-dominated field underwent a cultural rebrand after the invention of the personal computer, with fewer women pursuing computer science in the years that followed.

“Software was feminized when it was considered clerical, masculinized when it became high status,” Shanahan explained. “Marketing was feminized when it was ‘making things pretty.’ Now, marketing is being masculinized because AI has made it so anyone can code, and now the biggest problem is distribution.”

“This technical language is being applied to earn respect with leadership, without considering what that means for who those roles might go to and who feels qualified to apply,” she concluded.

Of course, jobs don’t have genders, and there are already many men in marketing and many women in engineering.

But given the fields’ notable gender gaps, an apparent rebrand that might make marketing appear “manlier” is prompting examination.

“So backwards”: Social media is split on the take

The video quickly spread across social media. Many users on X echoed Shanahan’s sentiment and added their own evidence. “Someone at Ramp once told me ‘growth is marketing when men do it,’” one user recalled.

“It’s hard to find jobs that are actually in my field,” another user lamented, “because they’ve started using tech buzzwords for job descriptions to make men feel like they’re doing something when it’s really just a role that would previously be like a secretary or something.”

Journalist Taylor Lorenz also cosigned Shanahan’s take. “They’re calling social media managers ‘growth engineers’ now,” Lorenz wrote. “She’s 100% spot-on with this analysis.”

But others said the video had things all wrong. One dissenter was Julia Pintar, cofounder of UGC company Playkit, who said she coined the term “UGC engineer” and that Shanahan’s take is “so backwards.”

“We call it this because distribution is integral to a company’s success—it’s a big-time job,” Pintar posted. “The nomenclature gives these roles the integrity that they deserve—we can’t win the gender war if we refuse to be equal.”

“The reason why job titles have changed is not because men now do the jobs women were doing & therefore [it’s] called ‘engineering’ now,” another user argued, pointing out that many startups now incorporate coding into their marketing workflows. “That kind of work has traditionally been called engineering, so the title has simply changed to reflect the evolution of the role itself.”

View the full article