Yahoo News Women are 25% less likely to be put forward for ‘clever’ jobs (even when just as qualified)
Women are significantly less likely to be be put forward for jobs which require a high intellect, a new study has found – even if they’re just as clever as male candidates.
Researchers found that women are 25.3% less likely to be recommended for a job which requires intellectual prowess.
Researchers asked 1,150 volunteers to recommend candidates for jobs – where one job demanded a ‘high IQ’ and ‘superior reasoning skills’.
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Men were much less likely to recommend female candidates, the study found – but so were women.
The researchers say that this ingrained prejudice may help to explain the under-representation of women in fields such as science and technology.
Dr Andrei Cimpian, of New York University says that if the ‘referral process is biased then even if the ultimate decision is based on merit, you are still making a decision on the basis of a pool of candidates that doesn’t have as many women as it should have given their competence.’
