Social scientists said they have found evidence that a fear of their masculinity being challenged would explain why some men act more assertively² when they have a senior female colleague.

 

'Male subordinates experience especially strong levels of threat when interacting with a female superior, which further leads them to act assertively', Ekaterina Netchaeva of Bocconi University in Milan, which carried out the survey added.

 

'The explanation is rooted in the idea that men's masculinity or manhood is elusive³ and tenuous⁴. It is something that needs to be continuously bolstered⁵, especially when it threatened by close association with femininity', she continues.

 

For the study, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers asked 52 male and 24 female college students to ask for a pay rise in a fake job interview, carried out by with both sexes of managers.

 

They found the men who had negotiated with a female boss were judged as more threatening, and pushed more for a higher salary. Women, however, did not notably⁶ change their behavior with a female or male boss, backing up the common trend that women are less pushy⁷ when it comes to pay negotiations⁸.

 

The social scientists also found that when men received a hypothetical bonus to share with their colleagues for work completed, they were less likely to split it with a boss of the opposite sex than women.

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