Men may feel more threatened by female bosses, research finds

Men are more threatened by female supervisors and become more assertive in advocating for themselves in negotiation exercises, new social psychology research has found. Self-assertive behavior by men toward female bosses can disrupt the workplace dynamics, stifle team cohesiveness and negatively affect team performance, researchers say.

Men may feel threatened by female supervisors and act more assertively toward them than male bosses, which could disrupt the workplace with struggles over power dynamics, according to new research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

"The concept of masculinity is becoming more elusive in society as gender roles blur, with more women taking management positions and becoming the major breadwinners for their families," said lead researcher Ekaterina Netchaeva, an assistant professor of management and technology at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. "Even men who support gender equality may see these advances as a threat to their masculinity, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not."

While women are underrepresented in senior management positions in the United States, they are almost on par with men at middle and lower management levels, according to Labor Department statistics. In three experiments, Netchaeva and her co-authors discovered that men feel more threatened when they answer to female bosses.

In an experiment with 76 college students (52 male, 24 female) at a U.S. university, participants were told they would negotiate their salary at a new job in a computer exercise with a male or female hiring manager. After the negotiation, participants took an implicit threat test where they guessed words that appeared on a computer screen for a fraction of a second. Participants who chose more threat-related words, including "fear" or "risk," were judged to feel more threatened.

Male participants who negotiated with a female manager exhibited more threat and pushed for a higher salary ($49,400 average), compared to men negotiating with a male manager ($42,870 average). The manager's gender didn't affect female participants, who negotiated for a lower salary ($41,346 average), reflecting a common trend where women tend to be less aggressive than men in negotiations, Netchaeva said.

In another experiment, 68 male college students had to decide how to split a $10,000 bonus with a male or female team member or supervisor. Male participants evenly split the money with male or female team members, but men felt more threatened by a female supervisor and tried to keep more money for themselves than with a male supervisor.

In a similar experiment conducted online with 370 adult participants (226 male, 144 female) from the United States, men were more receptive to female supervisors who were described as proactive and direct rather than self-promotive and power-seeking. Specifically, male participants tried to keep a larger share of the $10,000 bonus if the female manager was described as ambitious or power-seeking. Female participants offered roughly the same bonus amount to proactive or ambitious female managers.

originally posted by: theabsolutetruth
I have worked in management roles since before my 20's and I have found in all of those roles that men don't like it and they were more assertive in their attitude even though vastly under qualified for questioning my authority.

That has been my experience, it isn't up for debate or for the usual hordes of women hating men /misogynists or accusations of ''misandry'' or ''sexism''.

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
Masculinity is being marginalized while Femininity is being lauded. It's no wonder men feel threatened by female bosses.

In the interest of balancing the scales, men have lost a lost of power in society. We can debate over whether that is bad, or good. But that's the primary reason men feel threatened by females in power. It's a sign they're no longer the sole gender at the top of the food chain anymore.

High-achieving women are paid less than men even when they have similar levels of experience and are in the same fields, according to new Bloomberg Businessweek data. Women graduating business school this year reported an average of $14,548 less in expected annual pay than men, graduating MBAs said in a survey of 9,965 students at 112 schools, conducted as part of our recently published biennial ranking of MBA programs.

Women working full-time still earn almost £5,000 a year less than men, though the pay gap in some jobs is three times bigger, according to a TUC analysis of official figures published to mark Equal Pay Day today (Thursday).
Equal Pay Day marks the point at which women working full-time effectively stop earning as they are paid 15 per cent less per hour than men working full-time. But in certain professions the gender pay gap is much wider, says the TUC.
According to the research, female health professionals have the biggest pay gap at 31 per cent, which works out at £16,000 a year. A key reason for the size of the pay gap in health is the earnings of the best-paid professionals. Top male professionals in health earn nearly £50 an hour, twice as much as top earning women who earn £24.67 an hour.
Women working in culture, media and sport experience the next biggest pay gap at 27.5 per cent – which works out at £10,000 a year – while women working in manufacturing occupations earn nearly 24 per cent less than men.
Women earn less than men in 32 of the 35 major occupations classified by the Office for National Statistics. The three major occupations where women earn more than men – transport drivers, electricians and agricultural workers – are all male dominated. Fewer than 50,000 women are employed in these sectors, compared to 1.5 million men.
The gender pay gap across the private sector is 19.9 per cent, far higher than the 13.6 per cent pay gap in the public sector.
The gender pay gap is even bigger for women working part-time, who earn 35 per cent less per hour than men working full-time. Equal Pay Day for women working part-time was back on 27 August.
The TUC believes that as four decades of equal pay legislation have only halved – rather than eradicated – the gender pay gap, a tougher approach is needed to stop millions of workers losing out on pay and career opportunities, simply because of their gender.
One of the reasons for the gender pay gap is the lack of transparency in pay systems that allow companies to pay female employees less than their male colleagues, without staff even being aware of it, says the TUC. Publishing annual gender pay gap information and conducting regular pay audits would enable companies to identify any gender pay gaps, and take action to close them.
However, with just one in 100 companies voluntarily publishing equal pay information, the TUC wants the government to legislate and make audits compulsory additions to annual company reports.
More senior level part-time jobs are also needed to help women continue their careers after having children, says the TUC. Too many women are forced to trade down their jobs and abandon their careers just to find working hours that can fit around their childcare arrangements.

originally posted by: JadeStar
The more i read the more i realize that masculinity seems to be a fairly fragile thing.

At least this study (and others) would seem to indicate that.


From Science Daily and the Journal of the Society for Personal and Social Psychology

Here's an excerpt...

Men are more threatened by female supervisors and become more assertive in advocating for themselves in negotiation exercises, new social psychology research has found. Self-assertive behavior by men toward female bosses can disrupt the workplace dynamics, stifle team cohesiveness and negatively affect team performance, researchers say.

Men may feel threatened by female supervisors and act more assertively toward them than male bosses, which could disrupt the workplace with struggles over power dynamics, according to new research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

"The concept of masculinity is becoming more elusive in society as gender roles blur, with more women taking management positions and becoming the major breadwinners for their families," said lead researcher Ekaterina Netchaeva, an assistant professor of management and technology at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. "Even men who support gender equality may see these advances as a threat to their masculinity, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not."

While women are underrepresented in senior management positions in the United States, they are almost on par with men at middle and lower management levels, according to Labor Department statistics. In three experiments, Netchaeva and her co-authors discovered that men feel more threatened when they answer to female bosses.

In an experiment with 76 college students (52 male, 24 female) at a U.S. university, participants were told they would negotiate their salary at a new job in a computer exercise with a male or female hiring manager. After the negotiation, participants took an implicit threat test where they guessed words that appeared on a computer screen for a fraction of a second. Participants who chose more threat-related words, including "fear" or "risk," were judged to feel more threatened.

Male participants who negotiated with a female manager exhibited more threat and pushed for a higher salary ($49,400 average), compared to men negotiating with a male manager ($42,870 average). The manager's gender didn't affect female participants, who negotiated for a lower salary ($41,346 average), reflecting a common trend where women tend to be less aggressive than men in negotiations, Netchaeva said.

In another experiment, 68 male college students had to decide how to split a $10,000 bonus with a male or female team member or supervisor. Male participants evenly split the money with male or female team members, but men felt more threatened by a female supervisor and tried to keep more money for themselves than with a male supervisor.

In a similar experiment conducted online with 370 adult participants (226 male, 144 female) from the United States, men were more receptive to female supervisors who were described as proactive and direct rather than self-promotive and power-seeking. Specifically, male participants tried to keep a larger share of the $10,000 bonus if the female manager was described as ambitious or power-seeking. Female participants offered roughly the same bonus amount to proactive or ambitious female managers.

More at this link

What do you guys think about this?

originally posted by: DAVID64
Meh. I don't care if you're a male or female boss, as long as you know what you're doing.. Don't tell me how to build a house or weld a seam , when all you have is a degree in pushing paper.

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: JadeStar
The more i read the more i realize that masculinity seems to be a fairly fragile thing.

At least this study (and others) would seem to indicate that.


From Science Daily and the Journal of the Society for Personal and Social Psychology

Here's an excerpt...

Men are more threatened by female supervisors and become more assertive in advocating for themselves in negotiation exercises, new social psychology research has found. Self-assertive behavior by men toward female bosses can disrupt the workplace dynamics, stifle team cohesiveness and negatively affect team performance, researchers say.

Men may feel threatened by female supervisors and act more assertively toward them than male bosses, which could disrupt the workplace with struggles over power dynamics, according to new research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

"The concept of masculinity is becoming more elusive in society as gender roles blur, with more women taking management positions and becoming the major breadwinners for their families," said lead researcher Ekaterina Netchaeva, an assistant professor of management and technology at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. "Even men who support gender equality may see these advances as a threat to their masculinity, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not."

While women are underrepresented in senior management positions in the United States, they are almost on par with men at middle and lower management levels, according to Labor Department statistics. In three experiments, Netchaeva and her co-authors discovered that men feel more threatened when they answer to female bosses.

In an experiment with 76 college students (52 male, 24 female) at a U.S. university, participants were told they would negotiate their salary at a new job in a computer exercise with a male or female hiring manager. After the negotiation, participants took an implicit threat test where they guessed words that appeared on a computer screen for a fraction of a second. Participants who chose more threat-related words, including "fear" or "risk," were judged to feel more threatened.

Male participants who negotiated with a female manager exhibited more threat and pushed for a higher salary ($49,400 average), compared to men negotiating with a male manager ($42,870 average). The manager's gender didn't affect female participants, who negotiated for a lower salary ($41,346 average), reflecting a common trend where women tend to be less aggressive than men in negotiations, Netchaeva said.

In another experiment, 68 male college students had to decide how to split a $10,000 bonus with a male or female team member or supervisor. Male participants evenly split the money with male or female team members, but men felt more threatened by a female supervisor and tried to keep more money for themselves than with a male supervisor.

In a similar experiment conducted online with 370 adult participants (226 male, 144 female) from the United States, men were more receptive to female supervisors who were described as proactive and direct rather than self-promotive and power-seeking. Specifically, male participants tried to keep a larger share of the $10,000 bonus if the female manager was described as ambitious or power-seeking. Female participants offered roughly the same bonus amount to proactive or ambitious female managers.

More at this link

What do you guys think about this?

As long as my female boss is good looking, I don't mind working extensively underneath her, if you get my drift.

originally posted by: theabsolutetruth
a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Men being paid more in the workplace for the same jobs suggests otherwise.

Women are expected to have a career and anyone with intelligence knows that it isn't a great plan in expecting a man to pay for everything all your life or even to be in the same relationship after years, therefore it is imperative that women are able to support themselves for their own safety and security.

Many women in the workplace are supporting their families themselves whilst also having children which means finding jobs with the right hours, that are flexible to parents and finding appropriate childcare, neither of which are easily available these days and childcare is also not cheap and often neither a great standard nor flexible.

www.bloomberg.com...

originally posted by: theabsolutetruth
a reply to: JadeStar

My experience is that while man in managerial jobs are often totally swaying from policy, women have to keep tightly on it as there are a horde of men just waiting to criticize. The best way I have found is to keep professional at all times, as a lot of men try wangling their way via the relationship angle (another few threads) and to keep strong, being good at the job and getting the guys on side, delegation is a good idea as long as they know who is in charge.

Men may feel threatened by female supervisors and act more assertively toward them than male bosses,

April 9 was equal pay day in the U.S., where the wage gap remains a stubbornly high 23%. In Switzerland, where the gap is closer to an even 20%, a bank cooperated with a local women's organization to make this video dramatizing that country's wage gap. When men tried to withdraw CHF100 from an ATM, they received CHF80 instead. Their variously angry, bewildered, and violent reactions — until the ATM receipts explain the prank — are priceless.