Americans still prefer a male boss — especially women

A growing plurality of American workers don't care if their boss is a man or a woman, according to a Gallup poll released this week, but among those who do care, male bosses win, 33 percent to 20 percent. That's much closer than when Gallup started asking the question in 1953:

But perhaps the most intriguing finding in the survey is that women have much stronger preferences about the gender of their boss than men — 58 percent of men say they don't care, versus 34 percent of women — and that among women who do care, a significantly higher percentage would prefer a male boss. In fact, more women say they would prefer a male boss (39 percent) than men (26 percent).

Gallup finds a silver lining: "Workers who currently have a female boss are more likely than those who have a male boss to prefer a female boss in the future. This could mean that as more women enter management, preference for female bosses could continue to rise." Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport explains below. --Peter Weber

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