The bar chart compares the proportions of male and female executives employed in seven different professional sectors in the UK in 2007.
Overall, men accounted for a higher percentage of executives in construction, science and law, whereas women were more strongly represented in teaching and therapy. The proportions were identical in journalism, while advertising showed a relatively small gender gap.
Looking first at the professions dominated by women, teaching had the most pronounced disparity, with women making up 90% of executives, compared with just 10% for men. A similarly substantial difference can be observed in therapy, where females represented approximately 82% of the workforce, while the corresponding figure for males stood at only 18%. In advertising, the distribution was considerably more balanced, although women still held a slight majority, at 55%, compared with 45% for men.
By contrast, construction was overwhelmingly male-dominated, with men accounting for 90% of executives, while women represented the remaining 10%. A less marked but still noticeable gender difference existed in science, where the male proportion stood at 60%, compared with 40% for females. Similarly, men constituted approximately 55% of executives in law, whereas the figure for women was around 45%.
Finally, journalism was the only profession in which both genders were represented equally, with each accounting for exactly 50% of executive positions.