Some Americans Are Still Clinging to Their Male Bosses

It’s 2014 and yet there are still Americans who’d really prefer working for a man, thanks very much.

That’s according to Gallup, which plucked the figures from its annual work and education poll (conducted back in August): 33 percent of respondents preferred male bosses, while 20 percent preferred female bosses. Here’s the thing, though: 46 percent of Americans don’t give a damn either way. Probably because their main concerns are a) having a job at all and b) working for an understanding human being rather than a nightmare person. That’s changed over the years Gallup has been gathering this particular stat:

In 1953, Gallup first asked Americans, “If you were taking a new job and had your choice of a boss, would you prefer to work for a man or a woman?” At that time, 66% of Americans said they preferred a male boss. Five percent said they preferred a female boss, and 25% volunteered that it made no difference.

One interesting result: Gallup’s numbers suggest that men are more flexible on the matter: “Men are more likely than women to say they have no preference — 58% mention this response, compared with 34% of women,” leaving women more likely to prefer female bosses, but more enamored of dudes overall. However, as Melissa Dahl at The Science of Us points out, that should be taken with a big grain of salt:

As one study abstract put it, “it is well established that self-administered questionnaires tend to yield fewer reports in the socially desirable direction than do interviewer-administered questionnaires.” That is, survey respondents actually interacting with the survey-giver, whether over the phone or in person, are more likely to fall victim to social desirability bias, or the very human tendency to answer questions in a self-serving manner.

At any rate, it would be nice to see that percentage of people who don’t care either way growing just a little faster. And something tells me leaning in isn’t gonna do the trick here.