A study from jobs site CV-Library on workplace gender specific rules found that the majority were aimed at the appearance of male employees.

CV-Library found that 22.5% of employees have to adhere to gender specific rules at work, despite over half (56.2%) agreeing that these rules are sexist.

The most common gender specific rules include:

1. Men not being allowed to wear shorts (78.4%)
2. Women having to wear skirts or dresses of a certain length (20.7%)
3. Men not being allowed to wear jewellery (16.7%)
4. Men having to wear ties (16.7%)
5. Men not being allowed to have long hair (14.5%)

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library commented, “While there’s been a flood of media stories around equality in the workplace, especially in terms of the gender pay gap, it’s important that all forms of sexism are challenged. We often hear about women being judged on their appearance at the hiring stage, but our data suggests that male employees are more likely to face these problems in the workplace.”

“Employers should make sure that any rules they enforce are fair and justified,” Biggins said. “Above all, they need to remember that rules should apply to all employees.”

The study also asked professionals about diversity in their workplace, revealing that over one in four (28.8%) don’t consider their workplace to be diverse. However, gender equality at work is important to the majority of professionals (86.7%), with 43.5% revealing that they take this into consideration when job hunting.