Question: When is an IT analyst not an IT analyst?

Answer: When it's been gender-decoded. Because apparently women can't be IT analysts.

Confused? So was a high-ranking state government bureaucrat.

She was moments away from posting a job advertisement when her human relations department told her the job title was too "masculine" and would need to be changed.

The HR department had put the advertisement through a "gender decoder" that ruled the ad would repel women, unlike the title "IT support", which was deemed far more female-friendly.

"There's a little bit of Nation Building Authority dysfunction everywhere," the bureaucrat told the ABC — a reference to the fictional government department of satirical TV program Utopia.

"It made me feel disappointed that we are 'dumbing it down' to get more female applicants."

It begs the question: what is a female-friendly job ad, and why do we even need special job titles?

And what on Earth is a "gender decoder"?

A quick search reveals a free online service that allows you to paste a job ad to reveal whether "linguistic gender-coding" is present.

The results for an analysis of this ABC job came back feminine. ( ABC News )

According to the tool's preamble, it is based on an academic research paper that identifies words that have a discouraging effect on women.

Conveniently, this reporter's own job has just been advertised, and was hastily pasted and analysed.

The gender decoder ruled the advertisement for "Political Reporter, Parliament House, Canberra" to be "feminine coded", with plenty of female-friendly words like "committed", "collaborative" and "trusted".

On the masculine list were words like "independent" and "leader".

It's clear some job titles are loaded. In the media, the obvious example is cameraman, which is used conversationally, but not in job ads — it certainly doesn't suit talented ABC colleague Tamara Penniket.

The ABC's Tamara Penniket is the only female camera operator in the Press Gallery at Parliament House in Canberra. ( ABC News: Marco Catalano )

But the masculine-coded words on the gender decoder's list are less obvious than that.

Challenging, courageous, confident, decisive, determined, intellect, opinion and logic are all words said to discourage women from applying for jobs.

In other words — or, to decode the decoder — being challenging, courageous, confident, decisive, determined and intellectual are considered masculine traits.

On the flipside, gentle, pleasant, warm, inclusive and child are considered female-friendly by the decoder.

In case you're wondering? Yes, you can read the full list of masculine terms and feminine terms the gender decoder is looking for.