JOURNAL OF BUSINESS DIVERSITY

Trouble at the Top: Women Who Don’t Want to Work for a Female Boss

Author(s): F. Robert Buchanan, Renee L. Warning, Robert P. Tett

Citation: F. Robert Buchanan, Renee L. Warning, Robert P. Tett, (2012) "Trouble at the Top: Women Who Don’t Want to Work for a Female Boss," Journal of Business Diversity, Vol.12, Iss. 1, pp. 33 - 46

Article Type: Research paper

Publisher: North American Business Press

Abstract:

An exploratory field study inquired whether women like to be supervised by a female manager. The more

jobs held by female respondents, the less they preferred having a woman for a boss. Additionally, there

was negative bias related to the age of the female manager. There were no similar effects between male

subordinates and managers of either gender. In fact, the more jobs males had in their careers, the more

they believed that females make the best boss. Implications are discussed toward whether the glass

ceiling for females is being perpetuated to some degree by other females in subordinate positions.