The gender split of CIPD members

Hi Deborah I have the current split for you here - still pretty much in line with 2017:

Female 79.34%
Male 20.45%
Unknown 0.21%

Hi Johanna, is there an updated figure for 2020?

I've requested one for you from our database team, will post here when I receive it :)

Thank you!

Hi there, sorry for the delay in getting these figures! I have this for 2020:

Female: 79.65%
Male: 19.62%
Unknown: 0.72%

Thank you so much for this information.

Hi Johanna,

I'm not sure if this will be available but I was wondering if there were any statistics on LBTQ+ CIPD members or the HR profession more broadly? Thank you.

It might be equally interesting to understand the breakdown of CIPD membership levels and/or seniority of gender split? in many organisations I have worked in, the majority of HR staff are female but the male percentage tends to gather at the senior levels.

Hi Catherine, I will investigate with colleagues for you. I know we don't ask for/collect this info on our main membership forms but it has come up in some of our surveys. There is a useful reference doc here from last Autumn which shows 'The People Profession in Numbers' - this also contains some interesting facts and figures more generally so I thought I'd share it here: www.cipd.co.uk/.../uk-people-profession-numbers

Hi Helen, I can ask colleagues about that and try to get some info but in the meantime, this comes from our 'People Profession in numbers' research which we published last Sept.

'The people profession has more female professionals overall
Overall, 60% of the profession is female and 40% is male. This split is still reflected in more senior roles (61% are female and 39% are male) but is much more pronounced in junior roles, where 91% of those in HR administrative roles are female, compared to just 9% of men.

Source: Annual population survey accessed through NOMIS (2)' www.cipd.co.uk/.../uk-people-profession-numbers

Hi Johanna

Thanks for sharing this data, I'd not seen this before, but I must confess my surprise at the female/male ratio - based on data I've seen elsewhere (including the CIPD membership split being closer to 80/20) and my own personal experience across numerous companies (I appreciate anecdote has limited value) I must confess I am struggling with the figure of 40% of the HR profession being male. How reliable is this data set?

Thanks

Joe

Hi Johanna

Thanks for sharing this data, I'd not seen this before, but I must confess my surprise at the female/male ratio - based on data I've seen elsewhere (including the CIPD membership split being closer to 80/20) and my own personal experience across numerous companies (I appreciate anecdote has limited value) I must confess I am struggling with the figure of 40% of the HR profession being male. How reliable is this data set?

Thanks

Joe

I think the distinction (as its often with stats) is in the detail. Its the difference between people who work in HR departments and those in Professional roles (both senior and other)

From the report Johanna quotes there is this picture which demonstrates it

So both stats are true it just depends on what question you are asking

Thanks Keith, and agree, the devil is in the detail

What I think I'm still struggling with is the term 'people profession' - is this relating just to HR professionals, or if this is broader than HR, who is covered under this category?

Johanna, are you able to clarify this?

Thanks
Joe

I would "assume" its people working in broad HR (including T&D etc)

Hi Joe, sorry only just seen your question, I've asked one of my research colleagues who was closer to the data so I should have an answer for you soon!

Hi Joe- Johanna has pointed me to your queries, all great questions! I hope the info below helps:

- On the gender split and data source. This is from the Annual Population Survey. The overall sample is 300k  and allows us to capture a good sample of people professionals. As others have said, the overall gender split is 60/40 but does differ a lot by type of role. The gender split in administrator roles is 91% female, 9% male for example. 

-On the question of 'who', we’ve used the SOC (Standard Occupational Code) system to identify people professionals. It’s the classification used by the ONS generally and we use it on our Good Work Index to identify someone's occupation. We’ve included four SOC codes in the analysis, which I'll link below if you'd like to see more detail. In short, these groups are broad, so should capture much of the profession. There are some caveats of course-this doesn't include people professionals who aren't working currently or are retired, and there are some roles that may not be captured. For example, a management consultant who specialises in HR would typically wouldn't be included. 

• 1135 Human resource managers and directors 
• 3562 Human resources and industrial relations officers 
• 3563 Vocational and industrial trainers and instructors
• 4138 Human resources administrative occupations 

Hi Keith- that's right, we've used broad occupational codes to capture people professionals. More details further down this page if you'd like to see details!

Many thanks for clarifying Melanie, much appreciated (and thanks Johanna for following this up).

Joe