The latest HR Gateway poll, of 236 visitors, recorded that 72% thought that as a profession it suffered from gender segregation with the remaining 28% feeling that it was not an issue.
Recent research from the CIPD suggested that the department often charged with clearing up inequalities in the workplace also suffers from as much as a 23% pay gap at its top levels. Now it appears that it is also perceived as having a segregation issue.
Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) says that she also sees the profession as having ëserious problemsí in terms of segregation, an issue caused not just by its people-centred nature:
ëWomen have secured for themselves professional qualifications or a label of ìprofessional occupationî. One of the reasons for this is that it can prevent discrimination; no one can take their qualification away.
ëThe majority of people now going into accountancy, law and medicine are women, for example. This same pattern applies to professionals in HR so it is not just a matter of its emphasis on people,í she said.
She also feels becoming a member of a profession offers more flexibility for women. Especially for working mothers, being a generalist tends to mean less time with the children, she believes, and will hamper people from reaching the top table
ëFrom my own experience, when I had a policy job it was a lot easier to manage when I did the hours than when I had a generalist line management position. Then I was interviewing people over breakfast and dinner and never saw my children.
ëThis is one of the reasons why even though women are making it through to become finance and HR directors they are not making it to chief executive level,í she said.
However, some feel that as a profession HR does not suffer at the hands of gender segregation. Mark Cook, head of HR for Bedfordshire Police, for example, believes the mixture of men and women in HR ’fluctuates’ over time:
’The profession is fine from what I see. In my department we have a range of people. Currently welfare is all female but used to be mixed and training is mixed although occupational health and mainstream HR tends to be female.
’I don’t feel that drawing more men into the profession would improve it. It probably wouldn’t make any difference,’ he said.
HR suffers from gender segregation
While recent figures suggested that HR suffers from a wide gender pay gap, the majority of people working in HR also feel that the profession suffers from a serious gender segregation issue, according to a new poll.
