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When the gender pay gap asserted itself last year as a pressing concern needing urgent redress, there was a scramble not only to find answers but also to interrogate the causes. Those that were identified ranged from unequal caring responsibilities to outright discrimination.

Yet new research has found that the majority of women - more than two thirds - think they themselves are personally contributing to the problem. Some 45 per cent of the thousand women questioned on behalf of DrivenWoman, a female-only empowerment platform and network, felt they were actively fueling the gender pay gap by failing to believe in their own self-worth. The same proportion blamed themselves for failing to negotiate higher salaries, while 34 per cent pointed to their own failure to put themselves forward for promotions. Almost a fifth (17 per cent) blamed themselves for not taking full responsibility for their own “personal growth”, and almost all (98 per cent) thought they could be doing more to end gender pay inequality.

Women, suggested one respondent, were being “‘too compliant by adhering to old subservient stereotypes”.

Responding to the findings, Miisa Mink, the founder of DrivenWoman, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that women believe they contribute to the gender pay gap, because to a certain extent we do. We are tolerating it. Women shouldn’t sit there in a victim position, waiting for the world to change for them. We need to take control.”

Nina Gunson, head teacher of Sheffield Girls' School, which has introduced stand-up comedy classes to boost pupils' confidence credit: Guy Farrow/Sheffield High School/PA

This, of course, is one way of interpreting the research, and few would deny that “taking control” sounds empowering. The other way to view this tendency of women to blame themselves for structural inequality is that it highlights the extent to which they have bought into the idea that, rather than being victims of a workplace culture that could charitably be described as ill-designed to meet their needs, they are complicit in their treatment within it. Or, to put it differently, that the problem lies with the individuals adversely affected by the pay gap, and not with the system itself.

It’s an approach that has filtered down to schools too, with reports last week of a new initiative introduced in one sixth form to help girls “find their own confidence” - a lack of which could be holding them back. Sheffield Girls’ School is teaching stand-up comedy lessons to pupils in the hope this could help them cope with job interviews, negotiate at work and give them the confidence to request a pay rise.

Since lack of confidence and low self-worth are widely acknowledged to affect women in the workplace, such classes might indeed prove beneficial. Research by NatWest earlier this year found that 28 per cent of working women felt imposter syndrome had stopped them from speaking in a meeting, while 26 per cent had failed to change career or role because of it.

But some would argue there are risks in placing too much emphasis on the theory that women are their own worst enemies, with its subtext that it’s women who must change.

Some 45 per cent of those questioned by DrivenWoman felt they were actively fueling the gender pay gap by failing to believe in their own self-worth credit: Joe Giddens/ PA

"The gender pay gap is not the product of women's choices - we busted that myth a long time ago,” says Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality and women's rights. “Rather it's the result of structural barriers to women's progression, the unequal impact of caring roles, undervaluing women in the workplace and good old-fashioned discrimination. It's time to stop blaming women."

Timewise, a flexible working consultancy, is equally unwilling to place the blame for the gender pay gap on those who lose out as a result of it. Emma Stewart, co-founder and chief executive, says: “The issue isn’t that women need fixing in the workplace, the issue is the workplace needs fixing to ensure it can respond to the way those women - and increasingly men - need to work, now and in the future.”

Timewise’s proposed solutions to the gender pay gap reflect this. If one of the causes of the gap is the fact there are more men than women in senior roles, then those roles must themselves be designed differently, they have argued. Likewise, if caring responsibilities and part-time roles are shared unequally, the answer is to create quality flexible jobs that allow workers of both sexes to balance ambition with family time, they say.

Stewart acknowledges that women’s confidence in the workplace can indeed drop, especially after they have taken time out to have children. But she warns against focusing on this at the expense of the notion that workplaces themselves have to change.

“We’ve got to tackle a kind of structural inequality in the labour market for women and men,” she says.

: Women Mean Business Live, November 5 2019, will bring together over 500 business leaders and entrepreneurs for a day of action, debate and networking to overcome the barriers that all too often prevent female-led businesses and professionals within the workplace from reaching their full potential. Speakers will include media entrepreneur Tina Brown, Samantha Cameron, founder of Cefinn and Marta Krupinska, head of Google for Startups UK, among many more. For more details click here.