One in seven HR heads believe men are better suited to top jobs

Poll indicates younger HR managers are more likely to be prejudiced against women’s capacity to tackle the biggest roles than their older counterparts. Photograph: Aleksandr Davydov/Alamy

A significant minority of human resources executives believe men are better suited to senior management than women, according to the results of a “shocking” poll.

Nearly one in seven HR decision-makers rate men as better for top jobs and nearly one in five admitted they were reluctant to hire women they thought might go on to start families, the survey of personnel managers in England and Wales for the charity Young Women’s Trust (YWT) found.