Half of women believe their gender affects chances of being hired

I came across this interesting piece of research from the Institute of Career Guidance (ICG) news and felt that it would be a useful stimulus to provoke discussion and debate on issues of gender especially as it relates to one of the six KS4 LLW Statements of Minimum Entitlement - Investigate recruitment and retention, rights and responsibilities in the workplace. Arguably, this challenging topic of equality and diversity in the workplace should be an integral part of any careers teachers' 14 to 19 CEIAG programmes of work.

Half of women believe their gender affects chances of being hired

New research from a UK recruitment agency review site has revealed that 79% of people in the UK believe that employers work towards a "candidate brief" when hiring. A further 34% believe that potential employers could be put off by their age, depending on the role.


New research has revealed that a quarter of those questioned believe that employers make decisions with regards to who they hire based on irrelevant personal information. A third of these said that they thought their age would be taken into consideration when applying for a job, whilst 79% thought that employers worked towards a "candidate brief".


The research was conducted by a UK recruitment agency review site, www.HireScores.com, who wanted to find out what members of the British public thought of the job application and selection procedure; as a result 1,278 people in the UK were polled.

 When asked the question "do you think personal information such as gender, age and marital status would hinder your chances of employment?" a quarter of respondents, 26%, said that they thought it would, compared to the 67% who said that they didn't.


When HireScores.com asked respondents to stipulate what factors they thought would affect their chances of employment, a third, 34% said that they thought their age could have a negative impact on their application. Of these three quarters, 77% said that they thought they would be less likely to get the job because they were 'too old'. 23% said they thought young people could be ruled out for their "lack of experience".


Just over half of women, 52%, said that they believed their gender could go against them when applying for a job, however 87% of them said that it wouldn't stop them from trying. 72% of male respondents confessed that they thought their gender would work in their favour when it came to applying for a new job.


A fifth of employees believed that their marital status could hinder their chances of getting employed in their chosen career. Those who were single believed that they were least likely to be considered for a job, as they felt employers would believe them to be "less likely to remain loyal" with 23% saying they believed this.


When HireScores.com asked respondents whether they thought their potential new employer was working towards a "brief", 79% admitted that they thought they were.


Lisette Howlett, managing director of HireScores.com said;


"Personal information such as gender, marital status and age should not be considered relevant when it comes to employing someone. It is somewhat worrying therefore that such a high percentage feel that some employers may base their hiring decisions on these factors. Many employers take personal details from potential employees during the application process, but these are normally strictly for monitoring purposes and shouldn't affect your chances of employment."


She continued;


"Whilst it may be that certain job requirements make a job less attractive or practical for some people, for example, a single parent with a young child might not wish to travel long distances and stay overnight on business trips but this is for the individual to decide and not for the employer to assume. If a job does include extensive travel and overnight trips all candidates should be asked if this job requirement is understood by them and something that they can manage. If they say yes, they qualify for consideration."

Lesson ideas

Related issues on gender might include

Equal pay irrespective of gender (e.g.should women be paid as much as men for comparable work and why is there still a disparity in pay in some occupations?

Stereotyping jobs (e.g. male figures for primary school teaching)

Subjects for the boys! (e.g physics and technology for the boys?) Consider the subject choice breakdown in your school

Course choices for girls! (e.g.poor take up by girls of engineering where only 1:7 engineers are women; poor take up by girls of computer science post 16 etc)