I think it might refer to homme/femme (man/woman) which seems like a really weird thing to post in 2010 by western standards (where legally most jobs must be offered to people of any gender) however I guess it might have something to do with the gender-specific French words which might inadvertently suggest that the employer is looking for someone of a particular gender, for example:
It’s indeed homme/femme. EU legislation requires employers not only not to discriminate on the basis of gender when hiring, but even to avoid phrasing job vacancy notes in a manner which implies that only a particular gender can apply (unless there is sufficient reason justifying hiring only a particular gender); I guess the reason for this is that prospective applicants should not be deterred from applying by making them believe that they’re not eligible when, in fact, they are. In English, with it’s gender-neutral terms for jobs this is not an issue, but in many European languages it is.
Yeah, what **Schnitte **said. I’ve seen help wanted signs in French for a sales person that say “Vendeur(se)” to capture both sexes. (“Vendeur” for male, “vendeuse” for female.) In a whole ad it’s easy to see that this sort of thing can be tedious, and it’s simpler just to add the “H/F” to indicate that even if the word for only one sex is mentioned, both are accepted.
In the case of “médecin/chef de projet,” even in gender-neutral language, “médecin” and “chef” are the same in the masculine and in the feminine (un/une médecin, un/une chef), so the h/f would be needed to make it explicit that both men and women were encouraged to apply.
For example in German, where (m/w) is often seen in job ads - also to avoid having to put both gendered terms. Dachdecker (m/w) instead of Dachdecker/Dachdeckerin, Dachdecker(in) or the hideous camelcased DachdeckerIn