Corporate America May Still Be a Boys Club

MSN's Eve Tahminicioglu has not broken the glass ceiling, but says that it may still be shatter-proof to women.

The news corporation in conjunction and Elle magazine conducted a survey on attitudes in the workplace, the Work & Power Survey. The results show that we haven't come as far as we'd like to think when it comes to gender and the stereotypes that surround women.

The survey recorded opinions from 60,000 people. While more than half of those claimed that a person's gender had no effect on their ability to be an affective leader, most of those who expressed a preference said that men were more likely to stand out in that area.

The survey was conducted earlier this year. Elle and MSN believe they have uncovered the reason that the number of women in corporate leadership are declining. Women themselves still hold negative attitudes about their own sex.

"One cannot live in a sexist society without absorbing some of those messages, which make women feel worse about themselves and suspicious of other women," said Janet Lever, a professor of sociology at California State University in Los Angeles, who helped to conceptualize the survey. "The enemy is omnipresent cultural messages, not women themselves."

Out of all 60,000 respondents, 41 percent said men are more likely to be better leaders. Astonishingly, 33 percent of the women agreed. Three out of four of the women in the survey stated they would rather work for a man than a woman.

Those polled were allowed optional comments along with their answers. Words used to describe women in the workplace included "moody," "bitchy," "gossipy" and "emotional." However, the most popular label for women, written 347 times throughout the survey comments, was "catty."

"In our society, leadership has been coded as masculine," says Deborah M. Kolb, the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Professor for Women and Leadership at the Simmons School of management and author of "Her Place at the Table: A Woman's Guide to Negotiating the Five Key Challenges to leadership Success." "To be a leader you have to be decisive and take charge. That fits fine for men, but when women do it they get labeled."

Kolb feels that the labeling has more to do with familiarity than ability. She points out that many surveys prove women are equal to men in their leadership skills. However, these same surveys, just like the Work & Power Survey, show that women are still not seen as having the same potential.

Some assume that the still archaic thinking stems from the continued absence of women in high level positions across the globe. "Familiarity is a powerful force," says Karissa Thacker, a management psychologist and president of Strategic Performance Solutions Inc. "We are much more familiar with men in leadership roles. The unknown scares all of us regardless of gender."

Within the survey was a bit of hope that change could occur. Approximately 54 percent of surveyors said they had no preference as to whether their boss were male or female. There was a slight increase with those who actually had experience working for a female boss. Perhaps a generational change is around the corner as younger workers (18 to 29) had the higher preference for female leaders than those who were age 30 and up.

Change in the perception of women in the workplace may be coming, albeit slowly.

One quote from a male respondent to the survey shows the struggle that will continue for women striving for that corner office:

"As liberated as I consider myself to be, I think I'd have a problem taking orders from a woman."

Sources used for this article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17345308/