Female Managers Must Prove Themselves In Workplace, Survey Finds

A recent survey found LGBTQ+ employees receive less support and access to company executives and more often experience difficult communication and attitudes in the workplace, such as rude language or jokes, reports Vísir.

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The survey is the result of the project “Gender and the Workplace,” a collaboration among Empower, workplace solutions company, the University of Iceland, the Iceland Chamber of Commerce, Maskín and the Icelandic Confederation of Labour. The results were presented at a meeting at Hilton Nordica yesterday, and all companies within the Iceland Chamber of Commerce and the Icelandic Confederation of Labour were invited to participate.

Women provide more support than men

The results of the survey also show that women consider themselves three times more responsible in the home than men, and this gap increases between the sexes in managerial positions in companies. Four times more female executives than male executives claimed to have the majority or all of the household responsibilities.

In addition, female supervisors seem to provide more support to their subordinates than male ones. Similarly, 15.2% of female managers said they have had to prove themselves more than others or have been kept out of the decision-making process that is relevant to them, while 5.1% of male managers describe the same experience.

#MeToo has had a positive impact

The majority of those who took the survey say that the #MeToo movement has had a positive effect on the workplace. Of those who believe it has had a negative effect, half are male, and their dissatisfaction increases with age.

According to the results, 5.9% of LGBTQ+ employees have been sexually harassed in their current workplace in the last 12 months, compared to 1.6% of heterosexuals. Meanwhile, 5.3% of female employees aged 29 and younger say they have been sexually harassed at their current workplace in the past 12 months.

A total of 12,000 individuals received the survey and 4,164 responses were received. Participants comprised 2,260 men, 1,615 women and 10 LGBTQ+ individuals. Of these, 96.8% identify as heterosexual, 2.3% as LGBTQ+ and 1% of participants marked “other.”