A new poll found that England and Wales are ‘living in the dark ages’. The ‘shocking poll’ found that nearly one in seven HRs (Human Resource executives) believe that compared to women, men are better suited to management roles.
The ‘shocking’ study findings
A survey of personnel managers in England and Wales found that nearly one in seven HRs rate men as more suitable for top jobs. The poll for Young Women’s Trust (YWT), a charity, also revealed that almost 20 per cent, or one in five, human resource personnel also admitted to being hesitant to hire women who they thought may start families.
YWT has labelled these figures a “travesty” and said that Wales and England were “living in the dark ages”.
What’s more? The poll found that it is not the older generation that has this bias against women. Younger HR managers, as per The Guardian, were more likely to be prejudiced against women employees’ capabilities to tackle tough, big roles.
From a time bygone
YWT chief executive Claire Reindorp called these biases a ‘travesty’, and said: “You might think views like this died with the dinosaurs, but they’re still alive and having a very real and lasting effect.”
“We know it’s hard for young women to get the jobs that they want because of barriers such as a lack of flexible working and affordable childcare, but then when they do enter the workplace, discrimination and a lack of support to progress creates this broken rung on the career ladder.”
“It’s a travesty that in 2023 young women still aren’t being given the same chances in life as young men,” she added.
Alesha De-Freitas, the head of policy at the Fawcett Society, UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality, said that the results were ‘shocking’, and the reason gender pay gap persists.
“It is shocking that HR managers still believe that men are better suited to senior management than women,” she said.
“This then funnels through to all of women’s experiences at work, from pay discrimination to unfair treatment around contracts. No wonder there is no prospect of the gender pay gap closing for at least another 28 years.”
For the poll, 907 human resource managers were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “men are better suited to senior management jobs than women”. 15 per cent agreed with the statement, 79 per cent disagreed, and the rest said they didn’t know.
(With inputs from agencies)
