ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: SHERI PRASSO ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUT IN NO COUNTRY SURVEYED would more people choose a female boss over a male boss - the majority of women prefer male bosses, too.
People around the world for the most part say they want women to be more active in politics, but when it comes to the workplace, they want men as their bosses, a new Gallup Poll reports.
The survey conducted in 22 countries, in regions excluding the Middle East and Africa, also said that two-thirds of those responding think their societies are biased in favor of men.
``There is a strong perception that society favors men over women,'' Richard Burkholder, Gallup director of worldwide operations, said Tuesday in releasing the results. The poll said 73 percent of respondents in the United States and 78 percent in Japan believed it was the case. Only in Central America, China and Thailand did people say the sexes were more equal.
Bias carried through to the workplace as well. In no country surveyed would more people choose a female boss over a male boss.
``In some of the most highly developed societies, where the women's movement has been the strongest ... we find a persistent gender bias in the workplace,'' said Lydia Saad, a senior research analyst.
``Women are often less supportive of having female bosses than men are,'' she said.
Among Americans, 37 percent of men and 54 percent of women volunteered ``male'' when asked which gender they preferred to work for. That was an increase from the last time Americans were surveyed in 1993, when 33 percent of the men and 44 percent of the women said they preferred working for a man.
Twenty-four percent of American women and 44 percent of American men said gender made no difference; 22 percent of women preferred a female boss, compared with 17 percent of men.
``Men at least indicated they were not as insistent about working for a man,'' said David Moore, Gallup vice president. ``It's a fascinating statement on how women's opinions have evolved as they have moved into the workplace.''
Politics were a different story. More people in every society polled said their countries would be governed better if there were more women in political office, especially countries that previously have had women prime ministers, such as India (50 percent), Britain (51 percent) and France (59 percent).
Among Americans, 57 percent said the country would be better off if more women were in politics, as opposed to 17 percent who said it would be worse off.
``I wouldn't draw any conclusion from that, that people want equality in politics but not equality in the workplace. We really don't know why people feel that way,'' Saad said.
Moore, however, said other Gallup polls have indicated that people find it easier to get along with male bosses, but ``not because they are more competent.''
``It seems there's a certain comfort level in working with men,'' he said.
The poll also reported that:
Far more women, given the chance, would choose to be reborn as men than men who wished to be reborn as women. In Japan and Thailand, 41 percent of the women said they would chose to be a man, while the lowest was in the United States, at 8 percent.
More women than men resent the opposite sex, especially in Thailand where half of the women feel that way vs. a quarter of the men.
The survey of 22,000 people, conducted in August-November 1995, is considered representative of the views of 3.05 billion people. It has an error margin of 3 percentage points.
It polled the United States, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Germany, Britain, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Panama, Spain, Taiwan and Thailand.
Countries in the Middle East and Africa were excluded from the poll because Gallup has no offices in those regions.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: graphs - Women in Society APby CNB