Female bosses in ‘double bind’
Women expect more flexibility, emotional understanding and support from female bosses than they do from male bosses, a new study has found.
And female bosses who do not focus on relationship building can be seen ‘‘very negatively’’ by their female staff.
The research, by Massey University PhD graduate Jane Hurst, showed men in managerial roles were not held to the same standards by the women who work for them.
That placed female managers in a ‘‘double bind’’, Hurst said.
‘‘Women probably don’t expect a man to be as focused on relationships.
‘‘If male bosses are, they exceed our expectations; if they aren’t, they’re just acting how we expect them to.’’
Hurst, who is based at the Massey campus in Auckland, conducted her research through a series of workshops where women were asked to explore their expectations of female and male managers.
‘‘At first they said there was no difference – I think we are all led to believe that everyone is treated equally,’’ she said.
‘‘But when I began scratching beneath the surface, it became apparent that they did expect their female managers to be more aware of the complexities of their lives and to offer more flexibility to accommodate those complexities.
‘‘It shows that underneath the veneer of what’s socially accepted – that we are all treated the same – we still hold gendered stereotypes and expectations that we are probably not even aware of.’’
Hurst also found that most women who had experienced a bad relationship with a female colleague had either left their jobs or taken a backwards or sideways career step as a result.
Many had also had their confidence dented due to a run-in with a female colleague.