Business owners need to do more to tackle gender discrimination in the workplace, it has been claimed.

According to new research from recruitment specialist Greythorn, gender discrimination in the UK is rife – particularly in the country’s rapidly-growing IT sector.

Some 51 per cent of female employees in the IT sector told the firm during its recent survey that they had been discriminated against at some point during their careers.

What’s more, 85 per cent of those questioned said gender discrimination was still a problem in the office space despite government and industry initiatives to tackle it.

Speaking to HR Magazine, Paul Winchester, managing director of Greythorn, said: “Sexism has to be actively stamped out of the workplace and those who blithely accept it are just as much to blame as people who actively discriminate.”

Recently, Angela Knight, chief executive officer of the British Bankers’ Association, claimed that while gender equality is massively important, introducing gender quotas is not the way forward.