That's the finding of a group of experts who looked at time-consuming tasks that are likely to go unrecognised by management.

They found that women are asked to volunteer and accept requests to volunteer for such jobs more often than men in mixed sex situations.

When paired with other women they were no more likely to volunteer, they found, suggesting a cultural expectation in offices.

Researchers conclude that this could be a factor that is holding women back in the workplace.

In an in-depth article for the Harvard Business Review (HBR), the study's authors -included Linda Babcock from Carnegie Mellon University - outline the nature of these 'non-promotable' tasks and the effects they have on the careers of women.

Non-promotable' tasks vary from workplace to workplace, but essentially consist of low level jobs that won't receive recognition or reward.

This can range from filling in for a colleague, serving on a low-ranking committee, or taking on routine work that doesn’t require much skill or produce much impact, experts say.

The team decided to devise a series of tests to discover why women are more often to be found picking up these kinds of workplace chores.

Writing in HBR, the study's authors said: 'Across field and laboratory studies, we found that women volunteer for these “non-promotable” tasks more than men, that women are more frequently asked to take such tasks on; and that when asked, they are more likely to say yes.

'This can have serious consequences for women. If they are disproportionately saddled with work that has little visibility or impact, it will take them much longer to advance in their careers.

'Our work helps explain why these gender differences occur and what managers can do to distribute this work more equitably.'

In the first test, both male and female participants were organised into groups of three.

They were then given options on computer screens that they had to decide on within a time limit of two minutes.

They were offered the option to 'volunteer' on a computer screen by clicking a button.

This method was chosen to rule out the explanation that women simply enjoy or have a higher aptitude towards certain tasks.

As part of the experiment, each group member would receive $1 (£0.76) if no one clicked.

The Daily Mail

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