Satisfaction With the Social Competencies of Female and Male Supervisors Across Workplaces

Abstract

Scholars have widely documented the challenges women face in being evaluated as competent leaders. The authors contribute to this field by addressing whether and when female supervisors might have a favorable position by examining evaluations of social competencies in supervision and by examining different organizational workplace features. To test the hypotheses, the authors used a representative Dutch sample on 1,251 employed respondents. The results indicated that male-led and female-led employees were equally satisfied with their supervisor's appreciation and understanding of employees' care tasks at home – but women with a female supervisor were slightly more satisfied with their supervisor's social skills than women with a male supervisor. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the share of female co-workers and the policy climate in the workplace shaped differentiated evaluations of male-female supervisors. These findings highlight the relevance of including (structural) workplace features in future studies on perceptions of women in leadership.