A new report finds that while both men and women say there are not enough women in positions of power in the workplace, a majority of respondents still preferred to cast men in prominent jobs.
An online study conducted by Harris Poll found that both sexes preferred having men as president of the United States, Fortune 500 senior executives and personal financial advisers.
Although those attitudes may be disheartening to women who have aspired to male-dominated careers, many respondents did express support for having women in several other jobs, including senators and physicians.
When asked who they preferred in specific occupations, most of those responding said they preferred women to be direct managers, teachers, registered nurses and family therapists, according to the report commissioned by Pershing, a BNY Mellon company that provides financial business solutions.
Such positions are less associated with old-style top-down management. Instead, such jobs tend to require listening, consultation, coaching and community building approaches - skills that respondents said they associated with women.
“This presents a gender paradox,†said Kim Dellarocca, global head of Pershing’s marketing and practice management. “How can people prefer a management style they associate with women then balk at actually feeling comfortable with women in charge?â€
What may be surprising is that older Americans said that they were more comfortable having a woman in fields dominated by men.
“We found that the older the age bracket, the greater the comfort with seeing women in traditionally male roles,†she said. “Other research has shown that stereotypes can be broken down through real life experiences with women in traditionally male occupations.â€
“Some may have had difficulty in picturing a woman as an engineer or another male occupation until they were old enough to have encountered one themselves,†Ms. Dellarocca said.
Harris Poll conducted the study online in January among 2,047 adults ages 18 and older. Respondents were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in online questions. There is no estimate of sampling error because the sample is based on people agreed to participate.
Despite the comfort expressed with women in nontraditional jobs, the picture changed when those surveyed were asked to choose between the sexes for specific posts. Men, according to the findings, registered a 59 percent preference for a man as president, and 53 percent for a male lawyer, 72 percent for men as an engineer and 56 percent for a man as a Fortune 500 senior executive.
That compares with 28 percent women favoring male engineers, 41 percent for a male president, 44 percent for a top-tier executive and 47 percent for a male lawyer.
Ms. Dellarocca suggested that one way to overcome such attitudes would be to have more female role models. And over all, study participants said they wanted leaders to have the qualities they associated with women like collaboration, pointing to signs that women may be able to step into nontraditional roles.
