Playing the Indian Card

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Boss: Man or Woman?

Ask500People is a website at which you can pose a simple question, and people from around the world answer it. Answers are broken down demographically in several ways. Instant research.

A couple of days ago, I asked the question, “Who would you rather have as your immediate superior in your job? A man or a woman?” I got about the result I expected: 66% prefer a man as their boss.

Discrimination? Maybe; but consider this: women were about twice as likely than men to prefer a man. This makes me suspect the bias is the other way: men probably feel more contrained in seeing or saying the truth, for fear of being considered sexist.

Results were consistent across all age groups past age 25—i.e., beyond the point when people were likely to have had actual experience of both. Results by country were too small to make much of. The US, with the greatest response, matched the general trend pretty closely. India preferred women.

Even feminists now admit that men and women are not the same. It may well follow that one sex is better than the other at any given task, including that of managing other adults. It would only make sense to organize enterprises accordingly.

2 comments:

Tara Elocin said...

It depends on the options given though.

My blog features a survey (still running and only a few replies yet) asking "Would you rather work for a man or a woman?".

Most people chose "the better boss", independent of the gender...

Steve Roney said...

I think that third option, "whoever is a better boss," simply invalidates the poll. Of course, everyone want to work for the best boss. But is that more likely to be a man or a woman?