Technologists prefer male bosses

A recent poll by career portal and networking site
womenintechnology shows that the majority of people in the IT sector favour a
male boss over a female.

Almost half of respondents (44 percent) – who were
both men and women – preferred a man to be in charge at work, and another 38
percent had no preference. Only 19 percent said they would rather have a female
boss. There were many comments about bad experiences with female management.
One woman said: “I hate to say it but I much prefer male bosses. I find women
bosses tend to be emotional, vindictive and petty, with a tendency to be quite
competitive with other females.” Another stated, “I have never had a good
experience working under a female boss. I guess they feel threatened by my
presence, which brings out the worst in them! This leads to irrational, small
minded, obstructive behaviour, which really belongs in the playground, rather
than a professional working environment.”

However there were also more positive ones: “My favourite three bosses – and
those under whom I was most productive – were all women. Having said that, my
least favourite boss was also a woman, so no simple correlation available! But
I’d say that those woman bosses I had were very capable at drawing out experience
and positive energy rather than the typical male command and control model.
They also had a far healthier attitude to supporting a balance between work and
private life, before it became a trendy recruiting slogan.”

Other comments included “I always preferred a good boss – didn’t matter what
gender they were” as well as “Boy or girl? I don’t care really as long as they
are bright, fair, supportive, hard worker, fun, someone that inspires!” Maggie
Berry, Director of womenintechnology.co.uk. “It just comes down to personal
experience – it’s a shame that there have been some negative ones but maybe we
need to look at why that is, and what we can do to improve it.