Gender a career barrier for 90% of women, study suggests

Almost 90% of women believe their gender is a barrier to their career progress.

According to a UK study, 17% of female workers feel they have been passed over for promotion purely because of their gender, while over a third said it was unreasonably assumed that their work was less difficult than men’s.

The study has responses from 2,000 women, who were quizzed on examples of sexism they had personally experienced in their workplace.

A quarter of the respondents said it was harder to get recognition for their achievements than it was for their male counterparts, with one in five saying they felt men could get away with “slacking off” more in the office.

The ten most commonly experienced examples of workplace sexism were:

1. Being expected to make tea and coffee – 43%
2. Enduring sexual innuendos – 38%
3. Having appearance or clothing commented on – 33%
4. Being accused of being pre-menstrual/menstrual – 29%
5. Being presumed less competent than male colleagues – 27%
6. Being joked about in a sexist way – 24%
7. Being paid less than male colleagues for the same job – 19%
8. Being presumed to be more junior than they are – 18%
9. Being spoken over or patronised in meetings – 18%
10. Being expected to keep the office tidy – 17%

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