As part of a study, commissioned by SME Loans, to investigate what small businesses can do to become better workplaces, they found that:
Breakdowns by Gender
As expected, there are variations by gender. 28% of men feel they’ve experienced gender discrimination in the workplace compared to just 23% of women.
Of those who felt they’d been a victim of such discrimination, women were likelier to feel they were not taken seriously because of their gender. At the same time, men were more inclined to think that those of the opposite sex get away with more at work.
When it comes to promotions, 29.2% of men feel that they have been overlooked because of their gender compared to 28% of women. Similarly, 23.1% of men felt that their work wasn’t taken seriously because of their gender compared to 31.2% of women.
On the question about unfair dismissal, 19.7% of women said that they felt that they were unfairly dismissed because of their gender compared to 26.1% of men. There were also 21.7% of men who believed that they were made redundant because of their gender compared to 12.4% women.
33.9% of men found that women tend to get away with more at work because they were female; however, 30.3% of women shared that same sentiment about men. Similarly, 26.4% of men believed that they didn’t get the job they were interviewed for because they were men, with 20.6% women thinking the same thing.
Regional Breakdowns
Gender discrimination in the workplace also varies regionally. A significant 35% of all workers polled in Yorkshire felt they had been discriminated against compared to just 16% of employees in Northern Ireland.
In the South West, 29.5% of workers feel they’ve been the victim of workplace bullying. The figure drops to 15.6% in Northern Ireland.
In the South East, 17.3% of the workforce believes they’ve been sexually harassed in the workplace, dropping to just 6.4% in the South West. Also, 25.5% have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace, with around a 5% drop in the South East to 20.2%
Bullying in the workplace across the South East was reported at 20.50%, with a 9% higher figure in the South West of 29.50%.
Workplace discrimination in the West Midlands was 31.4% compared to 25.8% in the North West. Reports of sexual harassment in the workplace are higher in the West Midlands at 16% compared to 10.9% in the North West. However, bullying figures are lower in the West Midlands at 18.6% compared to 24.50% in the North West.
Workplace discrimination in the North East was significantly lower at 26.7% compared to Yorkshire at 34.7%. Yorkshire also had higher bullying and sexual harassment figures at 24% and 16.80%, respectively, compared to 22.20% and 12.20% for the North East.
In the East Midlands, 19.5% of people reported workplace discrimination, with 10.70% reporting sexual harassment and 22.10% reporting having been bullied. In the East of England, figures were similar at 18.3% for workplace discrimination, 10.30% for sexual harassment, and 19.40% for workplace bullying.
Northern Ireland has lower workplace gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying figures at 15.6%, 9.40%, and 15.60% compared to Scotland’s 21.9%, 11.80%, and 22.50%, respectively.
When comparing Wales to London, figures for workplace discrimination were higher in the latter at 27.2% and 30.6%%, respectively. However, Wales had higher sexual harassment figures at 15.20% compared to 10.10%. Bullying at the workplace in both cities was within the margin of error, with 23.90% for Wales and 27.10% for London.
Gender Discrimination by Age Group
Gender discrimination in the workplace also differs significantly by age. 25 – 34-year-olds have the highest percentage of people experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace at 38.4%. By contrast, 35 – 44-year-olds are the age group most around the same amount of gender discrimination at a massive 30.4%: 18-24 -year -old reporting with 28.2%. 45-54 -year -olds reported 17% with 55+ year old being least affected at 7.5%.
Sexual harassment at the workplace was lowest for 55+-year-olds at just 4.4%. 18-24-year-olds experienced 15.5% sexual harassment, 25-34-year-olds reported 19.4%, 35-44 reporting 13.8%, and 45-54-year-olds reporting 17.6%.
Bullying at the workplace was lowest for 55+-year-olds at just 18.1%, and the highest was 25.7% for 25-34-year-olds. 18-24-year-olds reported 24.1% instances, 35-44-year-olds reported 24.2% instances, and 45-54-year-olds reported 21.6% instances of bullying at the workplace.
Other Types of Harassment
The survey also uncovered different types of harassment experiences at work.
Raw Data
The startup statistics data obtained from the survey is available on request. Please email [email protected] if you would like a copy.
Media ContactCompany Name: SME Loans Contact Person: Charlotte RossEmail: Send EmailPhone: 020 3475 9213Address:2nd Floor, The Harley Building, 77 New Cavendish St City: London W1W 6XBCountry: United KingdomWebsite: https://smeloans.co.uk/
