Sexual discrimination is rife in certain professions but it affects men as well as women, according to research which challenges the traditional notion that women are the only victims of sexism in job applications.

Researchers found significant evidence of a bias against men in jobs for chartered accountants and computer analysts, which are already considered more gender neutral than some. While women are being passed over for engineering jobs because of their gender, men are even more likely to be turned away from secretarial posts. The study blames embedded ideas about what jobs men and women should do, or "occupational segregation".

Judy Rich, an economist at Portsmouth Business School and co-author of the report with Peter A Riach, said: "These findings raise questions about why men are discriminated against. What's it saying about the embeddedness of sexual stereotypes in England? It suggests that legislation, which has been around to tackle sexual discrimination for 30 years, is making no inroad." She added: "There is no legislation which requires affirmative action, but perhaps some employers are preempting it in the accountancy and computing sectors, or they could be in the progress of resegregating and becoming more female, as was the case with bank tellers."

The economists sent off two fake applications for more than 400 jobs in the four professions. Each applicant had equal experience, qualifications and age profiling but one bore a man's name, the other a woman's. They found women were half as likely to be invited for an interview for an engineering job compared with men, and men were nearly four times less likely than women to get an interview for the secretarial posts. Men also faced significant bias in accountancy, where 30% of the workforce is already female, and in the computer analyst jobs, where one in five is a woman.

The pay gap between men and women currently stands at 17.1%, the Women and Work Commission will report on Monday. It is expected to focus on occupational segregation, and in particular why women are far more likely to be in low-paying jobs. The report is expected to ask, for example, why female-dominated caring professions such as nursing and childcare are paid much less than male-dominated construction jobs.

But critics will argue that by focusing on this, the report will miss an opportunity to insist that the government should tighten up the gender equality laws and crack down on businesses which fail to tackle the problem. Kate Bellamy, senior policy officer at the women's campaigning group the Fawcett Society, said: "Concentration of men and women in different jobs is an issue and we should be about enabling women and men to move into non-traditional roles if they want to. But we need more urgent action now to ensure the work women do is valued. We want to see the government set targets for closing the pay gap."

Jenny Watson, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: "Discrimination does occur against men, and it's important to tackle the barriers. However, women still suffer most from inequalities. Our recent survey found it will take 40 years for women to achieve equality in the boardroom."