Male stereotypes and attitudes are holding back women's careers, particularly women of child-bearing age, according to research published this month by the Industrial Society. Managers are predominantly male and regard men as the main breadwinners, and are reluctant to promote women. While there is legislation in place to challenge overt discrimination, the Industrial Society slams the legal options as "inaccessible and protracted". A spokesman said: "The fact that most decision makers within organisations are male is likely to be perpetuating male ideas about the superiority of male performance at work." The operation of schemes such as performance related pay are criticised, since they can work against women's interests. This is because managers have a critical role in awarding pay increases. "Gender stereotypes influence assessment in PRP schemes, as does the gender of the manager undertaking the assessment." There is a further twist. Even women managers are as likely to see men as primary earners and women as secondary earners. "The consequence is that better paid jobs are given to men because of their perceived financial responsibilities. "But single working female parents have financial commitments which are just as heavy as those of their male colleagues." Women are also held back from full participation in the workforce by the tacit assumption that they are responsible for unpaid work at home. This works both ways, since men are deterred from taking on an equal share of home or childcare responsibilities. "These patterns reinforce employers' expectations that the ideal employee has a single-minded commitment to work and can be expected to work long hours, shifts and overtime without protest. These are beliefs which discriminate against women with caring responsibilities." Legislation has done little to alter this, according to Industrial Society head of policy Patrick Burns: "It is 30 years since the 1970 Equal Pay Act, but women's full-time weekly earnings are still only 73.8% of men's. The problem has to be tackled if organisations are to secure women's full contribution to the UK economy." {{PEOPLE MOVES }}