Women prefer working for male bosses

[DamsonInDistressss]

It seems a common argument that the lack of women in senior management positions is a result of the patriarchy. However, I was surprised to read in a recent thread on here that the majority of women prefer female bosses and are more likely to collaborate with a man than with another woman. I can't find that thread so am reposting here.

If true, this is surely a prime example of us women shooting ourselves in the foot and must be a serious contributor to male dominance.

whilst I've not entered one beyond work experience

Youre not qualified to comment then.

Anecdotes from others doesn't count.

This is a Gallup study, and Gallup only interviewed 1k randomly sampled Americans. It’s not enough to build a definitive global view of female management.

Exactly, this thread is ridiculous seeing as it's based on one minor study in America (predictably seized upon by media desperate to perpetuate this misogyny).

Youre not qualified to comment then.

I note you prefer to dismiss my opinions than consider why you think what you said "says it all" about all women whereas sexual abuse and harassment being rife says nothing negative about men to you.

Conclusion from this thread: women are terrible bosses because of a couple of women who were terrible bosses. Men are much better bosses and numerous men perpetuating a sexist culture of harassment and abuse, preying upon women in subordinate positions of them, holding back the careers of women with exclusionary networking events in clubs which exclude women (in the legal profession for example) and all the cases there will be of men bullying subordinates at work (of which there have been countless cases even which have gone to tribunals) aren't representative of anything at all. Women are just awful.

How the hell can you know more about law firms than any other work place and yet you've only work experience in them?

You cant have an opinion on it unless you have worked in it and walked the talk.

My last firm was 70% women there were hardly any men.

Not just from me, my colleagues and I all have experiences of abusive female partners.

She was much harder work than the male bosses

Aren't you in a senior position to many at work? Would you be happy if they were irked at having to work for a woman?

It had nothing to do with being "irked" by her being a woman but by her being extremely difficult to work for. She went out of her way to find fault with people's work without being in the least bit constructive in her criticism. None of the male bosses I worked for compared.

And to be honest there are 3 of my female partners who trainees, male and female, don't want to work for. I can't recall hearing this said of my male partners in either my current firm or my previous firm. I can think of one male partner who gets criticised for being a bit lazy but that's about it.

I do prefer a male boss. I dont have a good experience of female working relationships.

If i ring a company up with an issue i do prefer to speak to a male. I dont know why i just find i get the outcome i want if you speak to the opposite sex

How the hell can you know more about law firms than any other work place and yet you've only work experience in them?

Because my dad's a QC and as I want to go into the field myself I've talked at length about it with him and colleagues of his.

My opinions are about the sexism on this thread regarding female bosses whilst male bosses are completely exempt from criticism. You still ignore all the male bosses who partake in sexist bullying.

Isn’t probably something to do with women’s insecurity at work? Based on several different things. Partly, they seem to have to work a bit harder to progress and might feel that their position is more tenuous, as a result.

Partly because, sadly in a lot of work environments, you have to behave in more of a typically masculine way to get on.

I should imagine a company full of feminists, who understand what it’s like to navigate life as a woman, completely appreciate childcare problems, and working with men general, would be a bit of a dream.

NoLove I first entered a law office as a trainee in 1982. In my experience I do not recognise much of what is said on here about how sexist and awful men in law are. On the whole most people, men and women, are pretty decent; either because they just are, or the professional consequences of not being pretty decent keep them in line.

I can think of 2 men, neither of whom I worked for, who had a justified reputation for bullying. I can think of around half a dozen or so women who had a similarly justified reputation.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.)

NoLove

Our experiences are of course anecdotes, but they’re not made up!

Interestingly, one of the articles I read about women being “bitchy” in the workplace was written by a female junior lawyer about her experiences. Take from that what you will.

Also, a few people commented about this being from “one small study”. I posted three, one of which had a 500,000 sample base. The sad truth seems to be that the majority of women would definitely rather work for a man than a women and it’s worrying.

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.

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 ?

NoLove

Tbh, I’d be worried about the prospect of you representing a man in legal decisions that could significantly affect his life. You seem to have a serious grudge against men, and this is without having even entered the corporate world properly yet!