HR is second ‘most sexist profession’ survey suggests

According to a newly published survey, IT and telecoms is the most sexist sector for women to work in in the UK – closely followed by HR.

Drawing on a survey of over 2,000 women, the Workplace Health Gap Report has ranked industry sectors based on real experiences of women feeling patronised, discriminated or held back in their careers because of what they claim is gender bias or the result of female health needs.

Women in IT and telecoms reported the highest levels of appearance-based scrutiny (57%), the greatest pressure to overperform because of their gender (55%), and the highest incidence of needing to downplay femininity to be taken seriously (63%).

On top of this, more than half (53%) said they had experienced microaggressions, while one in five (20%) felt gender bias had negatively impacted their career progression.

To the surprise of researchers, HR followed closely behind IT in second place, despite being considered a traditionally female-dominated field.

HR topped the list for the highest percentage of women who have been spoken over by a male colleague (86%). It also saw 44% experiencing appearance-based scrutiny and 53% feeling pressure to suppress their femininity at work.

Alarmingly, nearly half (47%) reported insufficient support for their health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Engineering ranked third with 68% of women reporting they’ve been patronised, and 59% saying they’ve felt the need to downplay their femininity. Over 66% report being scrutinised for how they look, and 39% say workplace support for women’s health is lacking. Some 27% of women in this field felt that a lack of gender equality at their employer had held them back from their career progression.

The sectors that were least sexist according to the researchers were education, retail, catering and leisure, and healthcare.

The survey formed part of the Workplace Health Gap report published by Superdrug Online Doctor.

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