A UK survey of 645,000 working-age adults has revealed that gay men are far more likely to be stuck in low-level management jobs than their straight male counterparts. According to the data from the survey, straight men are 7.9 percent more likely to be in management spots and 2.2 percent more likely to hold high-level management positions (such as running trading floors or managing entire regions).
The size of the respondent pool suggests that the “gay glass ceiling” revealed by the survey is generalizable to the population at large. Of the 645,000 respondents, 6,000 identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Christopher Carpenter, a Vanderbilt University economist, echoed the robustness of the findings, noting: “I’ve written in this literature for a long time. Those samples are ten times larger than what most surveys will give you.”
After accounting for a number of possible reasons for the disparity, including education, race, ethnicity, location, family status and occupation, researchers concluded that the most likely explanation is discrimination. The authors of the study suggest that stereotypes of gay men and people in managerial positions perpetuate the gap between straight and gay managers. “Gay men may be penalised for not being perceived to have the stereotypically male heterosexual traits thought to be required among managers,” they write.
Read more at NZ Herald