HR’s not-so-secret bias in the UK
Photo by Savvas Stavrinos
The HR world has been rocked by the revelation that a significant minority of human resources heads have a strong belief that men are better equipped for roles in senior management than women.
The shocking beliefs of HR execs were revealed in a study carried out by the Young Women’s Trust (YWT). Their poll of HR managers in England and Wales uncovered the fact that one in seven HR execs hold gender-biased beliefs in favour of men in senior positions.
The YWT has referred to the results of their poll as being a “travesty” that shows much of the UK is still “living in the dark ages” when it comes to attitudes around women in work.
This is particularly shocking because the UK is, seemingly quite progressive on this issue, having had no less than three women Prime Ministers (Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss) since the seventies, and because many of the UK’s biggest companies, including BT, GlaxoSmithKline and broadcaster, ITV, all have female leaders at present. In fact, we have one of the highest numbers of female leaders in the whole of Europe, and more than the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, combined.
Younger people more discriminatory
Perhaps, one of the more shocking revelations that came out in the poll was that younger HR execs are more likely to think liek this than older ones. We tend to think of the younger generation as being the most tolerant and least biased, but the stats simply do not bear that out when it comes to views on women taking on the biggest jobs in the country.
The head of policy at the Fawcett Society, Alesha De-Freitas, noted just how much of shocking thing this is for HR managers in 2023 to truly believe that men are better places to be in senior management roles than tier female counterparts. She also noted that it is clear that many companies are still illegally and systematically discriminating against women in the workplace, and that we really do still have a long way to go before we achieve full equality in areas like hiring but also when it comes to equal pay, unfair treatment and things like that.
Dinosaur views
Commenting on the stats, Claire Reindorp, YWT’s chief executive noted that views most of us think became extinct with the dinosaurs are still very much alive and affecting women in the modern world.
She acknowledges how difficult it is for young women today to get the roles they desire because there are still so many barriers in place. Like a lack of childcare that they can afford, and too few companies offering flexible working, that make it impossible for them. This, combined with a lack of support when they do get the job, is making it impossible for many women to achieve the career goals they are more than capable of.
YWT commissioned market researchers to survey 907 HR decision-makers to comment to whether they disagreed with the statement “men are better suited to senior management jobs than women” and shockingly found that while 79 percent disagreed, 15 percent did not. With the remainder of the HR bosses stating that they did not know. This is, most people will agree, simply not good enough in 2023.
A minority
That being said, it is worth noting that although one in seven is far too many, this is still a significant minority of HR execs who think this way, and there are many more, like headhunters, CJPI who would not be inclined to discriminate against women when it comes to hiring for senior roles. There are lots of good ones out there and it is up to individual companies to try and sort the wheat from the chaff if they want to avoid discriminating against anyone, including women, when they are looking for new hires of their own.
Too much effort
Another shocking statistic that was revealed in a different survey, this time conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found that one third of male business managers were of the opinion that businesses were spending too much time and effort trying to achieve a balance between men and women in the workplace, so this may not be something that always comes easily. However, everyone who is in a position to have influence should be taking a long hard look at themselves and what they are doing to ensure they do not discriminate against women, so that next time one of these polls is carried out, it will be a much more satisfying reading.
