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?