Who is the Ideal Boss?

This is an old discussion still without a definitive answer. Who is the best boss for a working woman? Answers to this question show a strong controversy, without one clear direction. In most cases, the best answer is: “it depends on each person, it is a one-to-one case.”

A study conducted in Denmark brought new and interesting elements to this discussion. Motivated by a growing literature in the social sciences suggesting the transition to fatherhood has a profound effect on men’s values, Michael S. Dahl, Cristian L. Dezső, and David Gaddis Ross (2012) studied how the wages of employees change after a male CEO has children using comprehensive panel data on the employees, CEOs, and families of CEOs.

The most interesting finding shows CEOs are less generous and pay higher wages after fathering a child, especially if the baby is a boy. The explanation the researchers gave was based on the fact a male CEO would, other things being equal, have an impulse to favors his firm’s resources for himself and his growing family, potentially at the expense of his employees.

Male boss married to a housewife or to a career woman? If you want to grow as a professional, look for male bosses who are married with working women, for sure. This is what Sreedhari Desai, Arthur Brief, and Dolly Chugh identified in a research they conducted in the United States. The research revealed that heterosexual men married to wives who are not employed (relative to those married to wives employed full time) go to work with attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that disfavor women in the workplace and are more likely to make decisions that prevent the advancement of qualified women.

Thinking about both conclusions in relation to the Brazilian context, where the machismo is another element in play, I firmly believe if those studies were conducted among the Brazilian population, the results would not be different. I risk saying they might be even more dramatic. However, there is another interesting aspect that calls my attention in the Brazilian context: Many working mothers prefer to have a woman as a boss and preferably those who are also a mother. For them, a “mother-boss” is more sensitive to women’s struggles when it comes to the field of balance: work versus family life; thus creates a better relationship with employees who are also working mothers.

A “man-boss” on the other side, is seen as someone who does not understand women’s struggles and their machismo is a constant threat. Embedded with old values, some “men-bosses” will favor men employees and see women employees as less capable of handling the pressures of the corporate world because of their responsibilities with their families.

It seems very old-fashion, right? Yes, and very sad, too. Unfortunately, this reality is still true in many Brazilian companies, where women are being penalized for their lives outside the office. Since many of us are working for the toward leadership or are in leadership already, couldn’t we change this pattern?

By Cecilia Russo

Cecilia Russo is a Brazilian business owner, COO of Troiano Branding Group, and author of two books related to working mothers, both published in Brazil.