Study: Women are more comfortable with bosses than with female bosses

"It's not yet possible to say exactly why women's job satisfaction drops with a female boss," Artz and Taengnoi say.

In Switzerland, too, women's quotas are being discussed in parliament and in business. If a new study is to be believed, however, this harbors new potential for conflict. Science has now also shown that the relationship between superiors and subordinates influences motivation, commitment and satisfaction.

When employees appreciate their boss, absenteeism and turnover drop, while productivity and performance rise. But does the gender of the supervisor also play a role in this - and if so, which? This question has now been investigated by the two economists Benjamin Artz and Sarinda Taengnoi from the University of Wisconsin.

"Changing Workforce."

For their study, which will soon be published in the journal "Labor Economics," they analyzed two US longitudinal studies. The National Longitudinal Study of Youth and the National Study of the Changing Workforce have tracked the lives of 12,000 Americans since 1979 and 2008, respectively.

To do this, the participants regularly provide information about their private and professional lives - in which industry they work, how much they earn and whether they are satisfied overall with their boss and job, ranging from one (very unhappy) to 4 (very happy). The researchers limited themselves to all those employees who work in the private sector and report to a supervisor. And in doing so, they discovered a curious correlation.

Bosses do not meet expectations

Of all people, those women who had a woman as their boss were the unhappiest with their job. Artz and Taengnoi even believe they can quantify this effect. "The number of women who proclaim the highest job satisfaction drops by up to seven percentage points when led by a woman," the researchers say.

"This is roughly equivalent to the loss of well-being that one suffers when one is not paid appropriately for one's performance." Surprisingly, they did not find this effect for men; for them, having a female boss did not affect job satisfaction. Were the affected women's chances of advancement lower? Not at all. Did they have worse positions than the men? Not at all.

"It is not yet possible to say exactly why women's job satisfaction drops with a female boss," say Artz and Taengnoi. But the researchers think there are three main reasons:

Firstly, it is possible that female employees have a certain idea of what qualities a boss should ideally have - but that the respective female superiors do not have those very qualities. And this discrepancy between desire and reality possibly reduces satisfaction.

Secondly, it could be that female bosses exist mainly in those industries where employees are unhappy anyway because they are poorly paid.

And thirdly, those who are already unhappy may look for jobs in industries with many female managers. This mechanism could also play a role in the upcoming US presidential election. The study suggests that Hillary Clinton could have a hard time with many women - because they don't trust her in the role of commander in chief.

This text was originally published by Wiwo.de