In America, male bosses are still preferred over female bosses, according to data from a recent Gallup survey. When asked which gender you would rather work for, 33% of respondents said male and 20% said female.
Forty-six percent of respondents said that gender didn’t make a difference to them when it came to leadership.
Though male bosses were preferred by more of the survey participants this year, the numbers have improved since the poll first ran in 1953. Back then, 66% of respondents preferred a male boss to a female one.
Throughout the course of the 60 years this survey has existed, the percentage of respondents who would prefer a female boss has never gone higher than 25%.
Women are more likely than men to prefer a female boss, with 25% of women and 14% of men expressing a preference for female leadership. However, more women (39%) still prefer male bosses to female ones.
More men responded that they have no gender preference when it comes to bosses, with 58% of men having no preference. Thirty-four percent of women said they don’t have a preferred gender for their bosses.
Part of the reason why male bosses are preferred in the workplace may be because they are more familiar to respondents. The study showed that more than half (51%) of employed Americans have a male boss. Only 33% of Americans currently have a female boss.
Respondents who have a female boss were more likely to say that they would prefer a female boss in the future.
Age and political affiliation were also factors in gender preference for bosses. Though younger respondents still preferred male bosses, they were more likely than older Americans to want to work for a female boss.
The differences in were even more prevalent down the different party lines. Republicans had a large preference for male bosses over female ones, 42% compared to 16%. Democrats were a lot closer in their preferences with 29% preferring male bosses and 25% preferring female bosses.
Many Americans (20%) are concerned that women don’t have equal opportunities for career advancement and promotions. It was the second-highest concern that Americans had regarding working women.
The top concern regarding women in the workplace was equal pay, according to the survey. Thirty-nine percent of Americans said that fair pay was the most important issue facing female employees.
