Women With Only One Female Boss Have It Bad?

A new study finds that your boss’ gender can affect just how much pain he or she seems to inflict. Researchers at the University of Toronto used data from a 2005 national telephone survey of working adults in the United States and compared the stress levels and physical health problems of men and women working in one of three situations: for a lone male supervisor, a lone female supervisor, or for both a male and female supervisor.

The study found that:
Women who had only one female boss reported more psychological distress (such as trouble sleeping, difficulty focusing on work, depression and anxiety) and physical symptoms (such as headaches, stomach pain or heartburn, neck and back pain and tiredness) than women who worked for one male boss.

Women who reported to a mixed-gender pair of supervisors also reported more of these symptoms than their peers who worked for a single male boss.

Men who worked for a single supervisor, regardless of the supervisor’s gender, had similar levels of distress.
Men who worked for a mixed-gender pair had fewer mental and physical symptoms than those working for a lone male supervisor.

The findings, specifically those of female subordinates with females bosses, contradict theories suggested by previous studies that demographic similarities between a boss and their subordinate would promote harmony in the work place, while demographic differences would create problems.

The researchers speculated that these contradictions may stem from the stereotype that it is more “normal” for men to be leaders and display the typical leadership characteristics.

Something about the nature of the work itself is influencing these health differences. For example, women working with a woman supervisor might tend to be found mostly in the “caring sector or in jobs that tend to be under-resourced, under-funded and under-valued,” such as social work or education, creating stress both for the workers themselves and stress for the boss that might trickle down to her subordinates.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 8:01 pm and is filed under My Life At Work, News, Studies and Surveys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.