Mum’s career prospects doomed though dads never questioned

A staggering 81 per cent of managers admitted that they would ask a female job seeker their future and current family plans if the law permitted it.

Employment Laws prevent the types of questions relating pregnancy and family plans to female job applicants.

Despite this 49 per cent of managers confess that age and gender does factor into their final decision on whether to recruit someone. 
 
The research commissioned by the UK’s recruitment scoring website also showed that shockingly 89 per cent admitted they never considered a male applicant’s commitment to home or family during the recruitment process.
 
Women aged between 26 and 35 years old are most likely to be penalised with more than one in three business managers worrying about potential pregnancies.
 
89% of respondents also admitted that they never or rarely take male applicants’ commitments at home into consideration during the application process.
 
The biggest culprits were companies that employed 50 members of staff or less.  
 
 Managing Director of HireScores.com Lisette Howlett said:  “This topic raises some very difficult issues and although Employment Laws clearly state an employer cannot discriminate against a pregnant woman or a single mother, managers from small companies in particular are undoubtedly nervous about the added cost of funding maternity cover or dealing with quick dashes out of the office to see to a sick child.

“Interestingly these are potentially the very employees smaller, less competitive employers might benefit from considering since they can tap into a talent base that might otherwise be overlooked.
 
“It is however an extremely controversial topic and managers who openly question women about their home life need to be extremely careful and ideally reconsider their interviewing strategy.
 
“On the other hand, it is also possible for female interviewees to be rejected because they are not as qualified as someone else and not based on their being pregnant or having a family – these situations can also raise difficult problems for an employer.”