What’s the key to getting ahead? Well that differs depending on whether you’re male or female, according to new research launched by Former PM Julia Gillard.
Gillard spoke about “deeply embedded” sexism on stage overnight with Hillary Clinton in the UK, during King’s College London’s World Questions event series, while also penning a piece on the research findings in The Independent.
Twenty six per cent of Britons believe that intelligence is one of the key factors for helping women get ahead, compared with 17 per cent who said the same for men, according to The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership research, in partnership with the Policy Institute and Ipsos MORI.
Thank you @HillaryClinton for joining me for an inspiring and engaging discussion at the #worldquestions event series hosted by @GIWLkings and @policyatkings. As always, it was wonderful to hear your insights into equality, politics, and some of our biggest world questions.
There’s a gender difference again when it comes to determining whether ‘working hard’ is key to getting ahead, with 37 per cent saying it is for women compared with 29 per cent for men.
And how about having connections? Well that’s one factor that does work in men’s favour, with 29 per cent of Britons saying it’s important for men’s success compared with 15 per cent for women.
As for looks, one in ten said it’s a factor for women to get ahead, compared with 4 per cent for men
“Make no mistake,” Gillard writes on the findings, in The Independent, “We’ve made a great deal of progress on equality between women and men.
“But there’s still a long way to go before capable, competent women get the same rewards as their less-than-stellar male counterparts.
“Just ask Hillary Clinton.”
Gillard also revealed that the top three barriers to women’s success at work, according to Britons, include: employers not doing enough to close the gender gap; a lack of support from employers for balancing care and work; and employers not promoting women into senior positions.
Clinton told Gillard during the Kings College event that in 2019 women still face embedded sexism.
“We still face a lot of these deeply embedded attitudes that are then internalised by girls and women, which often act as artificial barriers for a lot of women’s aspirations and the larger society’s expectations,” she said.
Clinton also spoke about the need to take online threats made against female politicians “very seriously”, noting the murder of British MP Jo Cox by a right-wing terrorist back in 2016. “It is fuelled by these online vile attacks that are out there but it also breaks into the real world,” she said.
