Men rule — at least in workplace attitudes

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

Hillary Clinton might want to sit up and pay attention to results of our exclusive survey on attitudes in the workplace.

While Clinton hopes to smash through the ultimate glass ceiling to become the nation's first female president, the Work & Power Survey conducted by Elle and MSNBC.com suggests that stereotypes about sex and leadership are alive and well.

While more than half our 60,000 respondents said a person's sex makes no difference to leadership abilities, most who expressed a preference said men are more likely to be effective leaders.

Of male respondents, 41 percent said men are more likely to be good leaders, and 33 percent of women agreed. And three out of four women who expressed a preference said they would rather work for a man than a woman.

The survey, conducted early this year, found a bonanza of stereotypes among those polled, with many using the optional comment section to label women "moody," "bitchy," "gossipy" and "emotional." The most popular term for woman, used 347 times, was "catty."

There are still few women in the corner office today, and the numbers appear to be declining. Our survey sheds light on one obstacle blocking women from the boardroom: negative attitudes about women leaders — attitudes women themselves still harbor.

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“One cannot live in a sexist society without absorbing some of those messages, which make women feel worse about themselves and suspicious of other women," said Janet Lever, a professor of sociology at California State University in Los Angeles, who helped conceive the survey. "The enemy is omnipresent cultural messages, not women themselves."

There are long-established attributes that are assigned to men and women, says Madeline E. Heilman, an expert on workplace sex bias and professor of psychology at New York University. Women take care of others and nurture, while men are seen as taking charge and being assertive. The problem is, she says, when we map these attributes onto the workplace the male attributes are much more sought after.

“I call this the lack of fit,” she explains, because the perceived attributes of women don’t fit the leadership mold. “When women succeed in areas they’re not supposed to they are disapproved of greatly, by everyone, men and women.”

Indeed, our survey found that about 33 percent of men and women would rather work for a man, while about 13 percent would prefer working for a woman. (The remaining 54 percent had no preference.)

About the survey Our online survey was completed by 61,647 people, about 50 percent male and 50 percent female. The average age was 42, 94 percent said they work full-time and 44 percent said they supervise other workers. Although the sample size is large and diverse, it is not considered nationally representative because it was largely restricted to MSNBC.com readers.

And when asked who would be more likely to lead effectively, males were preferred by more than a 2-1 margin by both men and women — even though women got high marks for being problem solvers and providing more supportive work environments.

Will men and women ever see beyond these ingrained beliefs and accept women as conductors on the career express? It’s all about preconceived notions of the leader image, says Claire Babrowski, the former CEO of RadioShack. When people close their eyes and visualize the top dogs sitting around the corporate table, she explains, “We picture men in leadership roles. As a woman you already have this hurdle to overcome.”

Julie Fasone Holder, a corporate vice president for Dow Chemical, remembers a hallway conversation in the 1980s after she and another woman were promoted. A male executive said to Fasone, “I guess it’s women’s promotion week.” The way he said it, she says, “was I was being promoted because I was a women, not a great leader.”

And even though Fasone says things have gotten better for women, she adds: “Women still face stereotypes. We’ve come a ways, but I wouldn’t say we’ve arrived.”

Some executives said attitudes are changing, if slowly.

"A lot of these differences are intergenerational," says Erroll B. Davis Jr., former CEO of Alliant Energy, and now chancellor of the University System of Georgia. "The first generation of female managers decided the way to the top was to out-macho the men. A second generation is better trained and is doing better."

Davis, who is black, say women and minorities face many of the same obstacles.

"Is it harder for women and minorities? Yes, but you deal with it and try and put yourself in a position to make it easier for those behind you. You can't spend a lot of time fixating on it."

Women overwhelmingly agree, with 71 percent of female bosses saying they have to work harder and be smarter than men to achieve the same level of success.

“It’s harder for woman to advance, and every woman has to prove herself more than a man does," said Linda Alepin, founding director of the Global Women's Leadership Network.

So women are stuck between a rock and a hard place, trying to be ambitious without overdoing it. According to our study, women don’t want to come off too confident and aggressive for fear of being labeled bitchy. But they also don’t want to be wishy-washy or risk being called indecisive or emotional.

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