Who's The Boss? Why More Women Are Not in the Corner Office

Are women better managers than men? The embers of this tired gender debate are blazing with new and fiery fodder, fueled by recent propositions in the media. The New York Times' "No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers" (July 26, 2009) and "Room for Debate: Do Women Make Better Bosses?" are just two examples that have elicited hundreds of responses, the majority of which tend to run something like this: "The worst manager I ever had was a woman."

Is all this criticism fair? No. Women are very good managers. While no one can state unequivocally that men or women are better managers, many studies have shown that women do have superior management skills. For example, one study of 900 managers at several multinational corporations indicated that women outperform men in 28 of 31 basic management skills and behaviors. Using the 360-degree feedback methodology, researchers compared various scores given by peers, bosses and subordinates to male and female managers.

Despite the fact that 70 percent of the raters were men, women scored significantly higher on critical management skills such as problem solving, decision making, planning, controlling, managing relationships, leading and communicating. Men and women were rated equally on delegation of authority. Interestingly, women scored lower than men on their ability to handle pressure and cope with frustration. But it's no secret that women often discuss their problems more openly, a tendency that can lead men to think that women just can't handle the stress.

But how are women as leaders? A group of researchers (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt and van Engen) looked at 45 studies on the various leadership styles of men and women. They found that women leaders used more transformational styles coupled with contingent rewards common in transactional leadership. That is, women tended to support and encourage their subordinates to accomplish difficult tasks and solve problems creatively, while simultaneously coaching and mentoring them in their individual needs. Compare that to male leaders who used a more transactional style, which includes both active and passive management-by-exception, and a laissez-faire leadership style (paying attention to subordinates' mistakes and failures, and/or waiting until the problem becomes too big to ignore).

In today's complex and highly competitive business environment, where companies have multiple customers in multiple markets all demanding custom-designed solutions to their issues, the organizations that are able to execute multiple initiatives quickly and flexibly have an edge over competitors. Companies are finding that they must move from vertical and hierarchical forms to horizontal and networked models that are more flexible, adaptive and necessary in today's world. This is where a more transformational style of leadership with a high degree of collaboration, cooperation and communication is necessary. Women -- and yes, many men -- are great at these skills.

No Girls Allowed

So if women have the skills necessary to be effective and top quality managers, why aren't more of them occupying the corner office? The unfortunate truth is that women don't often get the chance. Subtle and pervasive bias against women as managers makes it difficult, if not nearly impossible, for women to both excel as a leader and be admired for the competencies she brings to the job.

Women have always been perceived as less-than-ideal candidates for management and that bias has not changed over the years. Women who occupy roles that have traditionally been held by men face extraordinary scrutiny over their expertise and handling of that role. A Swedish study showed that women have to be two-and-a-half times more competent than men in order to be judged equally. Successful leaders are often associated with masculine traits like rational logic, authority, independence, toughness and aggressiveness. But when a woman is in a leadership role, she is held to a different standard than men, and outward displays of toughness, authority and independence are seen as incongruent with expectations of more feminine traits.

Need more recent proof? At the annual conference of the Academy of Management in Chicago earlier this month, scholars presented several new studies that indicated the following:

1. In cases where managers (male and female) behave unfairly toward others, women are judged more harshly than men and they are penalized more severely.

2. Women managers tend to use "transformational leadership" styles (motivating subordinates through respect and pride in the organization's mission, and using intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration) more often than men. But when men use that leadership style, they are perceived as more competent and subsequently get higher performance ratings than women.

3. The concept of "manager" still equals "male" especially if you are a man doing the perceiving.

4. Women and minorities who make it to the upper ranks of management are usually "tokens" or numerical minorities vis-à-vis the prevailing group at the top. As tokens, they are often part of a lower status group in the organization. Contrary to what might be expected, the token members favor the dominant and high status group in their preferences for working with other people, while shunning members of their own token group. This suggests that high-level women managers do not actively promote or encourage other women fearing competition from them.

5. Women tend to avoid negotiations about compensation, while men tend to avoid negotiation over family issues. Perhaps it's another reason why women earn about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.

I'm a realist: gender bias will never cease to exist, but it's time to give women a fair and equal opportunity to be the really great managers they have already proven to be.

Comments

[guard]

The absolute base of all power is violence. Men are bigger and they have testosterone. In spite of the appearance of civility in our culture, that's the bottom line.

[fredwenn]

I am a small business owner and employer. My dealings include banks, insurers, suppliers, government, and lawyers. This is what I've seen in 45 years.

Women are more likely to take time off for family emergencies or leave with little notice. Work is just not their top concern. I don't want to argue the merits of this -- but it effects how people view them as EMPLOYEES or potential MANAGEMENT.

Women complicate the workplace because they don't help other women - they compete with them.

And my business has been hurt more than once because I've lost a good employee because two women didn't get along. Men don't complicate their time at work the same way.

Just my view..... and I expect women to protest..... but it changes NOTHING>

[csavage]

I love reading these comments!
First off, I agree that there's a huge issue about women not helping other women up the management track. Remember, the "good ol' boy" network? It doesn't seem to exist for women.
Second, you can be successful in management as a woman, but, you might have to make family second. My sis-in-law is successful. Thankfully, my brother is very nurturing, has a flexible job, and is a good "mom" to my niece. Life is a series of choices and trade-offs and, really, you can't have everything. Could I make more as a doc? Sure, but why did I have kids? To be a mom. Money is a secondary issue right now

[Malkin72]

Can you show any proof of the existence of the "good ol' boy" network feminists love to reference?

I don't doubt that there pockets where it still exists and that it was prevalent years ago, but in my lifetime, I have seen ZERO evidence of men colluding to exclude women or keep power or anything of the things women seem to think occurs.

I have never had a man come up to me and say, "we need to exclude her or horde everything for ourselves, etc."

What exactly are you referring to?

[devans00]

FTA:
"The unfortunate truth is that women don't often get the chance. Subtle and pervasive bias against women as managers makes it difficult, if not nearly impossible, for women to both excel as a leader and be admired for the competencies she brings to the job."

So very true. If women don't get the opportunity to learn and fail or if they are punished more severely while making mistakes on the job, of course you'll never see significant numbers in the "corner office". No one is absolutely perfect on the job but penalizing one segment while shrugging at the mistakes of another segment makes sure the inequality is institutionalized.

[Malkin72]

I have to say, I have mostly seen the opposite...when push comes to shove, men are expected to deliver, no excuses...and if women are expected to deliver, but don't, then excuses are made for them.

[Oxonian2001]

There's also another reason which many women unfortunately do not want to admit: the queen bee syndrome. There are many women who are genuinely afraid that other women will somehow overshadow them or usurp their position. After all, there can only be one queen bee. (Remember Katherine Hepburn who famously hated other actresses?) And this is true even amongst so-called feminists. So whereas men are happily promoting other men, women think twice about promoting other women. In fact, I've known some--including one women's studies professor--who preferred hiring men with lesser degrees than women.

This scenario is even worse if you are not white. In my 20 years of experience--including the corporate world and academe--there is a tendency for some white women (mostly older ones, but even some younger ones) to regard minority women as "the help": as in they will only turn to them if there's a favor to be asked or will hold their distance otherwise.

So maybe it's women who need to give other women fair and equal opportunities.

[tattriem]

This is discrimination, plain and simple. I think every company in the country should be forced to hire the same number of men and women, just like they do with college sports. If you have 5 men as managers, you have to have 5 women as managers. If the government forced every company to do this, we would finally have an even playing field.

[Malkin72]

That's sarcasm, right?

[GodYesOrNo]

Women are not in the corner office because of all of us.
More women would have more powerful positions if we made the effort to even-out the playing filed by employing them as our lawyers, electricians, mechanics, dentists......
GodYesOrNo.com

[MrsFonebone]

Just look at recent events. Barney Frank gets asked a stupid question--by a woman--and basically insults her and is blunt, rude--he is praised, she is attacked.

Hillary Clinton gets asked an incredibly stupid question--and an insulting one--by a man, and reacts coolly and tersely, but without making an attack on the questioner personally---and omg, that's all over the news for days about how Hillary "lost it" and "snapped.

That's sexism, plain and simple.

[Malkin72]

Ehh...

The Nazi question to the Jew was way worse than the guy asking the opinion of a person, Bill Clinton, who was a key figure in the situation being asked about.

But Hillary should not have been criticized for her reaction, you are right about that.

[Oxonian2001]

Now that I think of it....didn't Barney Frank also put down a Code Pink woman (even though I do think they happen to choose the wrong way of getting their point across?)

[BeCivil]

"Women are very good managers." Nonsense. Some women are very good managers, some very bad, and some in-between. Just. Like. Men.

Women deserve the same opportunity to succeed (or fail) as men do. They just have to come as well prepared.

I'm a man. My excellent manager is not only a woman, she's five years my junior. She's earned my respect, along with the other dozen or so professional men that she manages.

[wanda665]

have you ever had to work for one?

[swift goat pet for truth]

Well, in my family, I could say I am the boss.

But then my wife would put me in the dog house.

[guajiro]

Women will never make good managers likely because their brains tend to be smaller than men's brains. They're smaller by about 50cc's on average. Additionally, women won't take the hard jobs, jobs like working the night shift, working in noisy, dirty environments or in jobs that are physical. Businesses need someone who can be there past the regular shift, sometimes working 4-5 hours overtime every other day for months at a time. They also might need someone who has good mechanical aptitude, and since that usually means working with machinery that is greasy, oily, in a noisy environment, guess what.......................there's no women anywhere to be found. THAT, in a nutshell, is why women don't have leadership roles.

[csavage]

I challenge you to go to any hospital at 2 am and talk to any nurse you might find.
As for small brains, there's a difference between neurons and myelin. Women have just as many neurons as men.
As for mechanical aptitude equalling management ability, I think you'll find a good many men have no mechanical aptitude in this day. Who fixes anything when a replacement can be had so cheaply?

[Banksy]

I'm a former VP of Operations for a manufacturing company in Utah. I can honestly tell you that my colleagues not only brow beat me for seeking to promote women within the organization, but the CEO, COO and at least 1 other VP blatantly told me that we didn't promote women to management positions because they get pregnant and need too much time off from work. It turns out that women also take too many days off, they ask too much of the top brass and they are unwilling to put in the extra hours needed to manage through crises. I tendered my resignation within two months of "learning" about women.

Interesting facts about the top brass at this company at which I worked for 3 years:
1. Oldest member of Management 29 years old
2. Predominant religious sentiment, which was blatantly used as a tool for justification of their beliefs
3. Zero women out of 75 employees with a salary
4. Knowingly employed 12 illegal immigrants who worked overtime hours every week for reg. pay

I was shocked, apalled and now unemployed (yay for me).

[guajiro]

While I'm glad for you that you feel good about quitting there, the fact remains that you were already in management as a woman and yet you quit. That fact is also one of the reasons why there are more men in management; they don't quit over reasons like those you just stated. I quit several good jobs when I was younger over similar "quality of employment" issues only to find that, in a monopoly style world that the U.S. lives in, they'll find someone else since all their employees are just a number. I've made my peace and now simply regard current big corporations as hostile to labor from the git-go, whether man or woman.

[shakerseeds]

Thank you for your honesty here. Congratulations, and best of luck finding a job in a more equitable state.

[csavage]

Thanks about the mention of employment of illegals. My neighbors hate it when I mention the immigration problem is a result of employers hiring these people and that they wouldn't be here if they couldn't get a job.
As for your employment, stick with your principles. Sometimes, life's tougher that way but the self-respect you save is worth it. And, think about getting out of Utah. I love the state-it's the LDS I can do without

[Malkin72]

For every study or statistic that you can find that shows men are better managers than men I can find 5 to prove the opposite, but that is irrelevant.

I thought the goal was EQUALITY?

[ProudNeoCon]

On one hand you complain about women being stereotyped, on another you are making a blanket statement that mowen are beter managers...

Is it possible that women do not get promoted as much because their managers are afraid that they will have kids and lose their job focus. While it may be not fair, that what happens often

[iridium53]

I'm a man who has hire hundreds of women over the years.
In administration, manufacturing and in technical areas.

Women do make better managers.
I'd call it even on leadership. And, yes, there is a difference between leaders and managers. Although women tend to be less bold than men - but, that can be coached.

Yes, women do get pregnant. Some leave. Some don't. One does what one can to accomodate their issues.
Yes, women do bear the bigger burden of childcare. And, yes they do take off unexpectedly because of it. Personally, I like people with good priorities.
And, yes, I believe women - especially single mothers - work harder then men while at work (and way harder than single women). They've got a tough schedule to keep and they work it - they tend to get in, and get it done.

I also like hiring former military.

Now I own a consulting firm - IT stuff, MBAs mostly. Unfortunately, travel is a problem for many single mothers. But, my ideal candidate is a mid-40's, ex-military, woman with kids grown up enough and enough support. They're tough, they set priorities, they get it done.

Just a point of view from this MCP.