Since 2010 the Government has enacted a series of policy initiatives to promote gender equality in the workplace, including mandatory gender pay gap reporting for businesses with over 250 staff, an extended right for all people to apply for flexible working and a name-blind recruitment process across parts of the Civil Service. The current Prime Minister highlighted the ‘burning injustice’ of differences in earnings between women and men in the first speech of her premiership.
We have seen good progress. The gender pay gap has fallen from 10.1 to 8.6% since 2010, the employment rate for women is at a joint-record high, and the number of women on FTSE 100 boards has exceeded 30% for the first time.
However, women continue to encounter challenges in the modern workplace. They remain overrepresented among low-paid forms of employment and are more likely to work in part-time roles which offer little scope for progression. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has estimated that around 54,000 new mothers are losing their jobs across Britain every year as a result of maternity discrimination. At the current rate, the gender pay gap will not close until 2072.
Understanding differences between men and women’s attitudes to work is important to understanding what more can be done to promote gender equality in the workplace. The aim of this new polling is to better understand public attitudes towards workplace opportunities, aspirations and equality.
Methodology
Polling was undertaken by Opinium and conducted between 16th and 19th November 2018. It consisted of one nationally representative sample of 2,005 UK adults. From this overall sample we produced a subset of 1,513 working-age adults (all adults aged 18+ who aren’t retired). Data presented in parts one to three of this analysis reflects the attitudes of this subset only. The sample was weighted in terms of age, gender, region, employment status and social grade to reflect a nationally representative audience.
These datasets enabled us to quantify public attitudes towards opportunities, aspirations and equality in the workplace, establishing the scale of difference in views by gender and age in particular.
In presenting the results of this polling, respondents’ answers have been grouped into ‘net’ positive and negative responses. For example, we asked respondents the extent to which they agreed with the statement ‘I am optimistic about my career prospects’. In presenting our findings, we collated responses indicating both ‘strong’ and ‘moderate’ agreement (‘net agree’). Similarly, we collated responses indicating both ‘strong’ and ‘moderate’ disagreement (‘net disagree’).
- Optimism about career prospects
Overall, working-aged men reported being more optimistic about their career prospects than women. Almost half (48%) of working-aged men are optimistic about their future career prospects compared to 41% of working-aged women.
In fact, this gender difference in optimism was more pronounced among younger people. As Chart 1 below shows, 68% of men aged 18-34 are optimistic about their future career prospects compared to 53% of women aged 18-34.
Part-time workers were considerably less likely to be optimistic about their future career prospects than full-time workers. ONS data shows that 42% of women in employment work part-time, compared with 13% of men, meaning the lack of opportunity associated with part-time employment is a gendered issue. Just 37% of all respondents working between 8 and 29 hours a week reported feeling optimistic, compared with 55% of people working 30 hours per week or more.
- Importance of professional identity
Working-aged men were more likely than working-aged women to agree that professional identity was an important part of their personal identity. Overall, almost half (48%) of working-aged men agree that their professional identity is a significant part of their personal identity compared to 43% of working-aged women.
As Chart 2 illustrates, this attitudinal gap was most pronounced among the youngest cohort of adults. Whereas 61% of 18-34 year old men said that their professional identity was an important part of their personal identity, 50% of 18-34 year old women agreed.
Interestingly, the gender gap narrowed and actually reversed among 35-54 years olds. Forty percent of 35-54 year old men said that their professional identity was an important part of their personal identity, compared with 42% of 35-54 year old women.
- Men and women in leadership positions
Overall, as chart 3 below shows, working-aged men and women reported being as happy as each other to work for both a male and a female boss. However, a higher proportion of both working-aged men and working-aged women said they would be happy with a male boss (70%) than a female boss (67%).
Younger men were more likely to be happy with a female boss than older men. While 67% of 18-34 year old men and 70% of 35-55 year old men said they were happy to have a female boss, only 58% of working-aged men aged 55 and over agreed.
- Gender and job suitability
As Chart 4 shows, men are divided as to whether gender plays a role in determining job suitability. Forty eight percent of all men agreed that some jobs are better suited to either men or women, while 43% said that gender does not determine whether someone is more capable of doing a job.
By contrast, only a third of all women believed some jobs are better suited to either men or women, compared to a majority (58%) that believed gender does not determine whether someone is more or less capable of doing a job.
As Chart 4 demonstrates, only 35% of men aged 18-34 believe gender does not determine whether someone is more capable of doing a job, compared to 44% of men aged 35-54. Roughly the same proportion of women aged 18-34 (58%) believe gender is irrelevant in determining whether someone is more capable of doing a job as women aged 35-54 (59%).
- Disadvantage in the workplace by gender
As Chart 5 demonstrates, a slight majority (54%) of men believe that neither gender is generally at a disadvantage in the modern workplace, compared with just under half of women (48%).
However, while 34% of men said being a woman generally puts you at a bigger disadvantage, this rises to 48% among women. And while just 4% of women said that being a man generally puts you at a disadvantage, this rises to 12% among men.
Surprisingly, young men are more likely than older men to believe that men are generally disadvantaged in the modern workplace. The proportion of men who said that being a man generally puts you at a disadvantage rose from 7% of those aged 55 and over to 18% of those aged between 18 and 34. Conversely, the proportion of women who say that being a woman generally puts you at a disadvantage fell with age, from 53% of 18-34 year olds to 46% of those aged 55 and over.
Conclusion
Our polling shows that differences remain between men and women’s attitudes towards the world of work. Working-aged women are less optimistic than working-aged men about their career prospects and are more likely to believe their gender puts them at a disadvantage. Men are significantly more likely to believe that being a man or a woman affects someone’s suitability for certain jobs. In a number of areas, attitudinal differences between younger men and women are more pronounced than they are between older men and women, suggesting that a gender-neutral workplace remains some way off.
Although opportunities for women in the workplace have significantly improved in recent decades, shifts in policy and culture remain necessary to ensure that gender becomes almost irrelevant to how people view themselves and others in the world of work.
Jessica Prestidge is a Senior Researcher at Bright Blue
Notes
The full data tables for can be found here.
We are grateful to Opinium for advising on and carrying out the survey, and for their comments on our analysis
