80% of women believe a glass ceiling on promotions still exists in the workplace, according to a survey by the business group Network Ireland. The survey on career progression, found that over a third of respondents believe being female has impacted negatively on their career progression.

The survey said over a third of women professionals have never asked for a pay increase, while a further one in three women said they would ask for pay rise if they felt they deserve one. 25% of respondents also said they did not go for a promotion due to family commitments.

Although over 50% of respondents said being female has made no difference to their career progression, Fórsa’s equality officer Andy Pike said the number of women who do feel it has had an impact on their career progression is extremely worrying.

“This new survey builds on established research findings showing that women at work are less likely to be promoted and more likely to occupy lower paid jobs.

“Fórsa believes that employers need to do much more to encourage and facilitate career progression for the women they employ. Proactive measures could be taken such as increasing the availability of family friendly or flexible working patterns, something highlighted by the ERSI as playing a significant role in preventing women from applying for promotion.

“Employers need to get ready for mandatory gender pay gap reporting and prepare to implement policies which would contribute to breaking the glass ceiling and closing the gender pay gap,” he said.

Among the surveys other findings were that just 5% of respondents have applied to join a board, while 25% also said they would like to join a board, but did not know where to start.

The survey also found that female business owners cited ‘family commitments’ as the second highest reason for not expanding their businesses, only behind costs.

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