WOMEN have little expectation of being able to break through the professional "glass ceiling" and have become frustrated and disillusioned,according to a survey published today.
Mori analysed a sample of 597 job applicants - registered with Hays Personnel Services, the specialist recruiter - and found a "sex war" in the professions.
Only a third of young women expect to get to the top in their careersand feel "resented" for taking men's jobs. There is "bitterness and confusion among both sexes about their respective roles in theprofessional workplace", said the survey.
A large majority, 78 per cent, of men in the professions said they opposed "positive discrimination", such as quotas for male and female recruitment.
A male lawyer is quoted as saying: "Sometimes women get promoted too fast just to improve the look of the statistics."
The survey found that 73 per cent of women who expressed a view felt that they were resented by men. Their feeling was confirmed by more than a third of their male colleagues
Twice as many men as women thought that mothers ought to stay at home with the children, though younger men had less rigid views, saying they believed men should also share the burden of looking after the family.
Only four per cent of women thought it would be right to stop working if they had children.
The survey found that men in law and insurance tended to be the most old-fashioned in their views about mothers not working. Most bankers were more liberal in outlook.
There were very differing attitudes between the sexes towards the right time to start a family. Most career women said they would not contemplate having babies until 27, while 62 per cent of men with professional jobs said they would like to become fathers by 28.
Women 's strongest preference was to start a family at 30. The largest group of men opted for 25. Women bosses did not come out well in the survey, which found that only four per cent of men wanted to work for a woman. Women said they would rather work for a man.
A woman banker is quoted as observing: "Women managers have more difficulty in treating the sexes equally."
The survey concluded: "Despite their success in entering traditional male bastions of work, today's professional women appear to be unhappy at work and unhappy at home."
