Female employees in the UK are twice as likely to see their gender as a barrier to career success than their male counterparts, a survey by HR software provider Ciphr has found.

Female leaders and senior managers are more likely to be impacted by gender bias, with nearly a third of respondents, 32%, saying they had suffered discriminatory experiences at work or had been treated unfavourably during recruitment.

A further 16% believed that their gender had made career success harder to achieve, according to the survey, which polled 4,000 working adults across the UK.

“Stereotypes and gender bias (both unconscious and overt) are still a reality that many women must contend with,” Claire Williams, chief people and operations officer at Ciphr, said in a press release. “This can have a direct impact on women’s ability to succeed and progress … and it can have a secondary impact on their confidence in the workplace, where fear of having their behaviours viewed negatively can affect how their competence and authority are perceived.”

Women working in male-dominated industries where males outnumber females in senior positions are more likely to report gender inequalities and discrimination, the survey found.

Female managers working in law are four times (42%) more likely to say that they have faced gender obstacles in their careers than their male colleagues (10%).

Women working in a range of other sectors — including property and construction, retail, engineering, accountancy and sales — have similar experiences. For example, a third of female managers in the energy and utilities sector, 33%, say their gender has made it tougher to achieve career success, compared with 11% of male managers who said the same.

“Women may face microaggressions or even overt sexism, which creates a sense that they must work harder to be taken seriously,” Williams said.

“This can also lead to a ‘performance tax,’ where female managers feel the need to over-prepare, over-perform, and self-censor to avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes.”