Primarily, that women have been socially conditioned to feel less entitled than men in all areas of their lives. This has created a big entitlement gap between men and women. This ‘unentitled mindset’ is a persistent problem that women face in their careers, leading to a lack of confidence at work. Many women in the study described this as a mindset where they were unsure whether they deserved better conditions. Examples of this 'unentitled mindset' in women and where it stems from include the following:

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1) A lack of confidence in negotiating pay increases and promotion. Participants said their workplace experience leaves them feeling unsure of their entitlement to promotion, to more family friendly conditions or increased pay. Women also expended significant energy considering whether their case was watertight, before making requests, and they reported feeling unsure of the rules of negotiation or the parameters of

success.

2) Intersectionality offers fewer escapes routes from persistent bias. Though women now resist overt bias, showing a willingness to challenge it wherever it occurred, overt bias was intensified when it intersected with bias towards race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or religion.

3) Bias towards women returning from maternity leave. This directly led to lower expectations of a woman’s contributions to the firm, commitment and ability to take on responsibilities and challenges. Women who had experienced this bias themselves and those who did not have children, but observed other women suffer this bias, saw this as a significant impediment to career progress. This issue was further exacerbated by a lack of visible senior working mothers ‘making it work’ which had a disabling effect on younger childless females, pregnant mothers and recent returners.

4) A ‘flexibility penalty’ exists for both part-time work, and full-time workers who enjoy a degree of freedom around their work schedule. Participants observed that even full-time work, when done flexibly, incurs a career penalty and contributes significantly to the ‘entitlement’ gap, even when the flexibility allowed is marginal and only negates the requirement to work over-time. All types of flexible working including part-time work, time-shifted or compressed hours, or the option to work remotely, positions the women who adopt it as ‘less than’ other employees. Participants report that this flexibility penalty lasts longer than the duration of the flexible arrangement, having a long-reaching impact over the length of a woman’s career.

5) Even where household (and childcare) tasks were relatively evenly split in a relationship, the responsibility or ‘mental load’ still fell to the woman in the vast majority of cases. The complex daily organisation of all caring and household responsibilities while parents are at work, fell predominantly to the women. Indeed, several women without children cited this anticipated imbalance as a contributing factor in their decision not to have children.

Moreover, upon talking to the women the research showed that many presumptions about why women at mid-career stage are lacking behind men are totally outdated.

These presumptions previously blamed for the lack of equal progression include things like: ‘Motherhood trumps all else and shifts career to a backseat’; ‘Female workers are more averse to embracing risks'; and ‘Women are uncomfortable earning more than their partners’.

The Female Lead recognises that these persistent problems cannot be resolved by ‘fixing the women’, but rather by fixing the systems and working practices that are currently in place.

The Female Lead has recognised this particular finding as vital for the advancement of women, and one that we have chosen to highlight in a media campaign we are calling The Entitlement Gap.

A crucial aspect of the ‘unentitled mindset’ is that it is not just something that impacts women in their work. When we looked closer at the concept, we found it at the root of many troubles throughout women’s lives and a vital part of what keeps women in a less privileged position in society. If women expect less, then they will not complain about having less.

Once you know about the ‘unentitled mindset’, you will see it everywhere - from 'manspreading' on the train, to women’s unequal domestic load, and in the huge amount of unpaid female work globally.