Women prefer working for male bosses

I’ve had good and horrible bosses - male and female. I think I like bosses who understand my strengths and weaknesses, and have really struggled with bosses who can’t recognjse those well. (So endless micromanaging on tasks I’m excellent at or not challenging me enough etc).

I’ve thrived under bosses who let me run with it on things I know while offering gentle support on things I’m not great at.

I don’t think it has much to do with the boss being male or female. I will say though in a very male dominated workplace women either bond together or turn on each other. Don’t see this dynamic now in our nearly 50:50 workplace but in previous 90:10 workplaces a woman used to being the sole lady often turned on other women colleagues.

I have found some male bosses to be a bit patronising, but on the whole reasonable. A few letches. I have also had female bosses. I would love to say I have enjoyed working for women bosses but I cannot think of one of them that was not bitchy, bossy, competitive and unsupportive. I have had a couple of real bullies too who made my life a misery. One of them I still see, although I don't work with her anymore. She has a female direct report again and she is treating her badly too, but the previous one was male, and she was incredibly lenient with him even when he fucked up. So, letches aside, sadly I would prefer to work for a male boss based on life experience although one day I hope I do get to work for a female who is totally supportive of other women without the need to suppress them.

I’ve had four male bosses and eight female. One male boss was dreadful (workaholic, terrible at giving instructions, expected his staff to work for free when “necessary), and only one female boss was good. So yes, I’d far and away rather work for a man.

My female bosses/supervisors have (aside from one shining light) been terrible at building moral, power-mad, anger issues, lacking in empathy, bullying, etc. Just a series of nightmares. My bad male boss never made things personal in the way female bosses have.

I think it is that the sort of woman who wants to be in charge is very often not a nice person. I had to check a former workplaces website just today (to see what they call the position I used to do) and I see that 3 years since I left they have had a complete turnover of staff, some positions multiple times. There’s only 6 positions! But the boss is a tiny terror and socant retain people. Why the board puts up with it I do not know.

I remember coming across some theory about women who make it to the top wanting to kick the ladder away for other women - they got there the hard way so why should others have an easier road to the top. At the time I thought it was a total load of bullshit.
But then I got my first female boss. She loved me for years until I told her I was pregnant. Then she just punished me constantly. She made it fairly clear she had to choose between career or family and she seemed to think I had made (the apparently binary) choice of family over career. She took most of my work off me and made me do all the crap.
She used to question me about every antenatal appt and would ask me what it was for, how long I was there, if it was routine etc. My old male boss (at same level in same company) would never have dreamed of doing any of this crap.
Another person on our team announced their pregnancy while I was on mat leave and our boss reacted so badly she had to step down from the firm (and the profession as a whole actually).
I hope the next boss I have is female and sets my mind at ease that this boss was just a bitter old shite and in no way representative of other female bosses.
Regardless I still want lots and lots and lots more female bosses.

At one place I worked, my male boss left and was replaced by a woman. She did everything she could to undermine me in the eyes of the board and make my position untenable. She was far and away the worst boss I've ever had. A truly nasty piece of work.
Then, a couple of years later I met an old friend, and to our amazement after comparing notes, it turned out that my friend had also worked with the same person. She had been an intolerable boss there as well.
Give me a man to work for any day - at least they play straight and you know where you stand.

Showing your agenda there op.

I've had four bosses who were female and they were all nasty, egoistic and bitchy. Uber competitive. One of them who was actually a sociopath I think.

One female boss who was great.

One male boss who was good.

If I was picking I'd choose a male boss.

Why do you think that is lass? Do you think it’s fluke, or something else ?

I don't think my experience is a fluke. I think from what I've heard this is a fairly general experience. I don't know- maybe it's a misplaced assumption that the women need to be more macho than men to compete with men.

Your theory about the pressures of family/ childcare doesn't stand up. Of the 6 I am thinking of 4 had no children; one had a stay at home husband and a nanny and only one might have been juggling childcare and even there her husband was a civil servant who more than did his fair share.

On the whole I would say the vast majority of bosses, men and women, in law range from perfectly fine upwards. The most frequent complaints are likely to be things like laziness, disorganisation, hogging credit but not real nastiness. Bad bosses stand out and maybe bad female bosses stand out more.

There is also unfortunately a tendency for women to say they don't want woman bosses. I am not directly involved but I know of a situation in the last couple of months in my office where a female associate has threatened to leave a law firm if she is given a female line manager. In this case the line manager is a lovely person.

A friend who's worked as a temp, and therefore had numerous bosses, says that the best and the worst were women. She says that the men she'd worked for generally thought she was a nuisance and tried to avoid her, but some of the women were downright sadistic, making her suffer for being an outsider on their territory. But then, there were some women who did the opposite, recognizing that she was new and unsure of her position, and trying to help her. I don't know what to say about that.

Yeah I've somehow always gotten on better with male bosses, not sure why as in RL I get on better with females in terms of being able to keep long term good relations. In work I always seem to fall out with female bosses. Maybe it's the kind of women who climb to management... can see how that comment could cause trouble but I'm in a management position so I'd be talking about myself being difficult to get along with which funnily enough is true.

Doesn't alter the fact that out of the few bad apples I came across the majority and the worst were women.

Why do you think that is lass? Do you think it’s fluke, or something else ?

I've done work experience because I want to go into law and have a firm career plan, not "because my father is a QC"

And how do you think you were offered that work experience?

Interesting there's no criticism of "male bosses" despite all the evidence of how many of them have and continue to behave

Firstly this thread isn't about male bosses and secondly I gave examples of bad male bosses. You can carry on decrying many years of actual lived and worked experience all you like. Doesn't alter the fact that out of the few bad apples I came across the majority and the worst were women.

I prefer bosses who are capable and competent. In my very male-dominated field, it has mostly been the case that the women who manage to rise are very good, simply because it seems that to be seen as equal to the men, you have to be far better than them.

The worst managers I've seen, who shout at someone because they happen to be there when the manager is pissed off about something else, rather than because that person has done something wrong - always men. And they say women can be too emotional in the workplace...

There are many managers in IT who got promoted because that was the next step, and they'd got that far because of their technical skills. Sadly, this does not mean they have any people skills, and God, so many of them epitomise the mediocre white man.

(This post is overshadowed by me being very pissed off with my current managers at the moment, who probably couldn't manage their way out of a paperback, even if there were flashing neon lights directing them to the exit, judging by their current performance.)

Sadly, any bitchiness and making my work life difficult, I've experienced from women in senior positions. It's a shame, but there it is

I've had some fantastic bosses - men and women - and a couple of shocking ones - all men in my case.

It's about people and their capacity to lead, inspire and run consistent and fair workplaces, high quality organisations.
I reject the idea that we should prefer one sex over another as a boss.. That's not to decry anyone's personal experience with someone - but you can't extrapolate that to 'all women or men'. I think it's lazy and somewhat prejudicial thinking. I might be secretly pleased to work for a great woman but having met some great men leaders, I know that working for them is equally satisfying.
And while I appreciate that it can be frustrating when those with less experience call out something we know about, I know from consultancy work that I often get to the heart of an institution in crisis by seeking the views of those 'on the outside' or who are new. Sometimes their untainted view of matters can be amazingly accurate.
Just a thought.
Love and peace everyone.

I've done work experience because I want to go into law and have a firm career plan, not "because my father is a QC". My mum's a dentist yet I don't have work experience in a dental surgery, however the implication I only did it because of my dad's profession is also dismissive.

Criticism of female bosses as a group is misogynistic. Interesting there's no criticism of "male bosses" despite all the evidence of how many of them have and continue to behave. This isn't about me, yet your post was again patronising and attempting to belittle. All the sexism I know goes on is based on reading evidence of it and I'd have thought plenty of people will have had awareness raised given all the news of it recently.

Anyway, I wasn't going to reply again, only did because of your patronising comments on why I did work experience and have a keen interest in law.

NoLove You have done some work experience because your father is a QC.

Yet you think that gives you the right to pontificate with authority about all the sexism that you know goes on in offices and that criticism of female bosses is made up and/or misogynistic.

And on top of that to patronise and talk down to women who are actually working in law offices.

In this particular case- no, you have no idea what you are talking about. You have your opinions bolstered by a couple of weeks work experience.

You have no idea what you are talking about

Haha. I'm afraid your attempts to belittle me are pointless, I know I have a good understanding of the topic of this thread and trust my opinions.

None of the male bosses I worked for compared

I hope you're not in the position of authority I thought you were at your workplace then. It must be awful for your subordinates to have a female boss

You have no idea what you are talking about and that is not what I said. It has nothing to do with having a female boss. The examples I gave were of bosses who were female who behaved appallingly. In my experience over 30 years plus in legal offices the ratio of appalling male bosses to female has been roughly 1 to 3.

They are , whether male or female, a tiny minority of all the people I have worked with.

I think it says a lot about how desperate many are to attack women that in a society where there has been increasing publicity for the abuse, harassment and bullying perpetuated by many men at work against in particular women who are junior and younger to them, some would rather discuss "female bosses" as being a problem on the back of a minor poll of 1,000 people in America.

It is a bit odd if a significant number of women think female bosses just aren’t as good to work for. What does that say about the people who work for them? Or how they themselves come across as a boss?

Isn’t probably something to do with women’s insecurity at work?

No it isn't. There really is no excuse for reducing a junior person to tears or tearing a strip off an assistant in an open plan office. NoLove can choose to disbelieve this but I have only encountered women doing this.

None of the male bosses I worked for compared.

I hope you're not in the position of authority I thought you were at your workplace then. It must be awful for your subordinates to have a female boss.