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Monster.com last week released the results of their new survey indicating that women are still finding it as difficult as ever to break through the glass ceiling.

The Monster Meter asked, ‘Do you feel that a glass ceiling exists in your workplace?’ 1,265 Brits voted, revealing:

34% (426 votes) I am a woman: Yes
33% (412 votes) I am a man: Yes
20% (255 votes) I am a man: No
13% (172 votes) I am a woman: No

Monster’s poll results surprisingly show that almost the same number of men (33%) as woman (34%) agree that the glass ceiling exists in their workplace. So whether corporate executives think they have addressed this issue the perception (and therefore the reality of the majority of the workiforce, be they men or women) believe the glass ceiling still exists.

In April 2006, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), women earn on average 17% per hour less than men for full-time work.

Only 11 FTSE 100 companies had female executive directors in 2005, a figure that is actually lower than the three previous years and in UK Parliament, women’s representation has increased to 126 women MPs today, which is 19.5% of MPs.

Survey results by the Financial Times seem to accurately reflect the current situation in Europe. The survey which scrutinised 450 top European companies conceded that women are making ’slow inroads’ in Britain and Scandinavia, but painted a dismal overall picture.

Only two of the 75 British organisations surveyed were headed by women, and the top 30 companies in the German stock exchange combined have just one female board member.

According to the EOC’s ‘Facts About Women & Men in Great Britain 2006’ report:

• 66% of managers and senior officials are men, while women hold 81% of administrative and secretarial jobs
• 83% of directors and chief executives of major organisations are men, while 95% of receptionists are women
• in the finance sector women are just over half the workforce, and yet the average hourly pay for a woman working full-time in finance is 41% lower than for a man.

So the next time you hear someone – male or female – mention that they think there is no longer a glass ceiling, you might want to give them the low down on these statistics.

What the research has not demonstrated to me however is whether it takes into account that some women just don’t want to head for the top for a number of reasons – as is evident from the GEM research I mentioned in a recent post – where increasingly more women are deciding to opt out of corporate life to establish their own business.

What ever the answer, if you have a leadership role in the HR function of an organisation there is much work to do to either address the issue of equality or the challenge of a flood of talented women wanting to leave the corporate world (and yes I was one of those women not so long back!)