Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Sunday January 22, 2006
The Observer
Men are the new victims of sex discrimination at work, according to a ground-breaking new study suggesting that professions once regarded as male bastions are now biased towards women.
Male applicants were up to four times as likely as women to suffer differential treatment when seeking jobs in accountancy and computer programming, according to researchers who submitted hundreds of pairs of fake CVs to employers - offering identical qualifications and experience, but alternating male and female names.
The CVs sent by the fictional 'Emma' were less likely than those from her alter ego, 'Phillip', to trigger an invitation for interview when both applied for the same job in engineering, suggesting this career was still seen predominantly as 'man's work'.
But it was 'Phillip' who lost out not only in applications for secretarial jobs - traditionally stereotyped as 'female' - but also for jobs in accountancy and computer programming.
The results present a startling picture of the modern workplace, suggesting employers may now be employing a form of stealth 'affirmative action' and actively trying to recruit more women.
They come just weeks before the government publishes the findings of its Women at Work Commission, which is expected to argue that the pay gap between men and women is partly down to the career choices that women make and their concentration in low-paid jobs.
Dr Peter Riach, co-author of the report with Dr Judith Rich, said: 'We were totally surprised by what we found.'
In your opinion, do you think this is a global trend or it is only happening in the UK as an isolated incident?
because programming very few ladies. if i were the boss, got lady come apply i sure happy sia.
guys arh. line up please.
Study conducted only in the UK nia, so cannot be sure whether it is an isolated case or not.
More studies have to be conducted to know more.