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More Americans prefer male bosses to female bosses, but the gap is narrowing

A new Gallup poll finds that 32 percent of Americans would prefer a male boss, while 22 percent would prefer a female boss. Nearly half have no preference.The relative good news for female bosses: The gap between those who would prefer a male boss and those who would prefer a female boss is at its narrowest point since Gallup started asking the question more than half a century ago.Indeed, in 1953
Gallup / Today

A new Gallup poll finds that 32 percent of Americans would prefer a male boss, while 22 percent would prefer a female boss. Nearly half have no preference.

The relative good news for female bosses: The gap between those who would prefer a male boss and those who would prefer a female boss is at its narrowest point since Gallup started asking the question more than half a century ago.

Indeed, in 1953 a scant 5 percent of Americans preferred to work for a woman.

Men actually appear to be less bothered by the gender of their supervisor than women. Gallup found that 57 percent of men said they don’t care what gender their boss is, while just 34 percent of women said they had no preference.

The poll of about 1,000 adults was conducted in mid-August.