Female Bosses Make Male Employees More Assertive

Because we’re living in the supposedly enlightened year of 2015, the female boss is becoming the new normal after years of domestic drudgery and legal servitude slowly transformed into women entering third level education and then the workforce. Sadly, this evolution is making some men revert to the Stone Age, with a new study finding having a female boss makes some men more assertive in a bid to show how masculine they are.

The study, which the UK Independent reported on, found that this ?assertive? behaviour was because certain men feel threatened by having a woman in charge. As opposed to inspired. The researchers at Bocconi University in Milan think that men react this way because they feel their masculinity is being threatened when a woman is in a more senior role. As a result, men become ‘more self-assured? and their manner ‘difficult?.

76 college students were assessed – 34 female and 52 male – and asked to negotiate their salary in a job interview role play scenario. Male or female managers were assigned at random. After the ?interview? the participants were asked how threatened they felt. The male subjects appeared more threatened and pushed for a higher salary than they with potential male bosses. Women participants across the board did not display such aggressiveness and tended to ask for lower salaries than men. Another test that showed a clear difference between the sexes when it came to working for the opposite gender related to a hypothetical bonus and the prospect of sharing it. Men were less likely to share their bonus if it meant including a female supervisor in the division of spoils. They’re not exactly reassuring findings, are they?

One of the researchers, Ekaterina Netchaeva said that the reason for all this caveman carry on is that ?Male subordinates experience especially strong levels of threat when interacting with a female superior, which further leads them to act self-assertively? The explanation is rooted in the idea that men’s masculinity or manhood is elusive and tenuous. It is something that needs to be continuously bolstered, especially when it is threatened by close association with femininity.?

We don’t know how any of this relates to German leader Angela Merkel and Greece, if at all, but if you have any conspiracy theories, lash ?em below.

Via Independent UK