I will out myself as a bloke to say that I used to work as a sub-editor in the magazine industry, where most of the chief subs were women, and it was a slog. Of course, male bosses can be horrible but generally I've found that happens if the bloke is a horrible personality anyway - in fact, the head chef at the place I now work is awful, but then he is known to be an awful person. The women I worked for otherwise seemed to have decent enough personalities but the mantle of being the boss didn't sit well with them, blokes generally enjoyed and embraced rank, the sense of being in charge, while the women didn't.
Many of them, when I went up to ask them a question about the job, tried to not give me a straight answer, as if to do so would give me some hold over them! If I walked away none the wise, it seemed to give them some satisfaction. It was like they felt I was trying to trip them up, whereas a male boss would be glad I was trying to get things right, and a friendly chat might ensue.
Many would use silence as a weapon, I agree with what others say about it being emotionally damaging, they could go all day and just not say anything to you, and as a freelancer I didn't have much clout anyway, but you can't take that stuff to HR because, well, they haven't actually said anything.
Being a bloke, you often came up against what I'd term the Japanese PoW attitude to - you know, they treated PoWs like dirt because they'd surrendered, which was not the Japanese way back then. Likewise, some women seem to think, well, if this bloke is working for me, he must be rubbish because in a normal world the roles would be reversed.
That all said, the industry itself and the job of being a chief sub didn't lend itself to happy extroverts so I also chalked it up to that, it depends on the sector. I think you also get bullying in sectors which are predominantly female or predominantly male, as the sexes can have a civilising effect on one another. Kitchens tend to be a very macho atmosphere, and the Army is notoriously rife with bullying, too.