Survey highlights resistance to gender equality at work

Male managers are significantly more likely to think too much effort is being place on gender balance and equality at work while 47% of female managers feel there is too little effort, according to a survey by the Chartered Management Institute.

The survey 1,150 managers showed that men are significantly more likely than women (33% vs 13%) to feel too much effort is being focussed on ensuring a workplace gender balance is achieved.

The survey also found that having a child is the primary driver for the differential experience of work and exclusion from opportunity for women. Female managers with children were more likely than male managers with children to feel they had been overlooked for at least one opportunity (37% vs 27%). Female managers were more likely generally to feel they had been overlooked than men – 34% vs 27%. Women manager with children were significantly more likely to feel they had missed out on salary rises than male managers with children (33% vs. 20%).

84% of managers told CMI that hybrid working has benefited them, and made it easier to balance work and home life commitments. Moreover, 60% of managers said flexible working had opened up job opportunities where it would have been difficult to balance work and home life commitments if these roles had been office based.

Ann Francke, Chief Executive of CMI, said: “Sexist remarks directed at Amanda Blanc, CEO of Aviva, at their AGM are just this week’s highly public example of the inequalities that exist at every level of organisations. We have a long way to go still, yet CMI data is starting to pick up resistance and perhaps even early signs of backlash amongst many men.

“Men have the potential to be great allies in achieving gender balance. But there has been too little effort devoted to communicating the enormous benefits that greater equity offers including for better business and organisational performance as all talent is better developed and deployed.

“Progress is far too slow, and these concerning findings even suggest that the prospect of us regressing is ever-present. Poor recent progress on gender pay gaps reveal the uphill challenge we still face. If anything, many are over-optimistic on the rate of current progress and the distance yet to be travelled. Yet, we know how important gender-balance is and what works to make a positive difference.”

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