What with the gender pay gap, the pregnancy penalty and sexual harassment over our clothing choices, women are undeniably discriminated against in the workplace.
Now, a new survey in the UK has found that a third of us decide not to wear our wedding rings during job interview in fear of further discrimination.
The findings, published by Credit Angel, found that 29 per cent of married women are worried about being unfairly passed over for jobs because of their marital status. Most believe that employers will think that they might be more likely to get pregnant and go on maternity leave sooner – a common form of sexual discrimination.
In 2016, recruiter Bruce Hurwitz caused outrage when he advised women to ‘ditch the ring’ for job interviews for an article on LinkedIn. It used the example of an excellent candidate who lost out on several jobs because of her diamond but was successful after removing it.
…An excellent candidate lost out on several jobs because of her diamond but was successful after removing it.
Other depressing findings from the report include the low number of women in finance industries (only 20 per cent hold senior positions), while half of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers have faced discrimination at work.
Meanwhile, 59 per cent of employers said they think women should ‘be upfront’ if they are pregnant during a job interview, further propagating this stigma against maternity leave. In addition, 46 per cent of bosses think it is okay to ask women if they have children during the hiring process. Again, this only continues the negative stereotyping of mothers who work, implying that they will not be as productive as their counterparts with no children.
