Unfavorability and Favorability of Female Boss

Across the world, gender stereotype exists in workplace setting. Typically, male counterparts take up leadership position in the workplace. However, when women are the bosses instead, there are questions being raised. This can be seen in two articles where the Business Times author, Shiao (2016) argues the unfavorability of female boss and the Balanced Careers author, Wolfe (2017) argues the favorability of female boss. While both articles are similar in the claims of people preferring male bosses, the difference is that the Balance Careers article is more reliable in showing the author trustworthiness, the article reliability and the accuracy of the claims.

In terms of similarity, both article agrees that majority of the employees are in favor of working for a male boss. According to the Shiao (2016), when 76 per cent of Singapore employees are compared to the world average of 65 per cent, this figure in much higher in our country and this shows the high inclination towards male boss. Similarly, Wolfe (2017) stated that since 1953, there have been a constant result in the Gallup poll where workers still prefers male boss. This shows that even though both articles present different views on women bosses, the stereotype mindset of male boss being a superior still exists among workers. However, in terms of determining author authority, there are differences in their areas of specialization. Lahle Wolfe had eight years of writing experience, where advises women in business fields and is part of the Women’s Mentor Network. Whereas for Vivien Shao, she have five years of experience in Journalism and focus mainly in finance and only written a few topics on women. This shows that the article written by Wolfe is more trustworthy as not only she is a women advocate, she is also qualified in having vast experience, counseling expertise, interest in empowering women and in-depth knowledge of business women as compared to Vivien where she only have little experience and not expert in the field. The next significant difference is the reliability of the article.

The Balance Careers article was published in the section of “Women In Business” and the objective is to provides women useful information in the business industry. In addition, there were verifiable evidence of statistical data to balance out the argument of men and women bosses. In contrast, the Business Time article was published in opinion section, where there is a usage of emotions and facts to influence the reader in accepting the author viewpoints. This can be seen in the informal language used in the article such as “you, I, our, admit it” to form one-sided view. Thus, the former article is more convincing than the latter as not only it is less biased, the article provides more factual and balanced information about women being a leader. The claims stated by Wolfe is supported by an external report. Wolfe (2017) stated that initiative and competency attribute which was once considered to be only men abilities in showing they are better than women in corporate levels, have now been outperformed by women. This is true as the report by Patel (2013) states that in Fortune 500 companies, when there is at least three women in the board of directors, they bring significant results such as improving profit margin and return on equity. Company bankruptcy will also be decreased by 20 per cent when a minimum of one women is on board. This suggest that Wolfe statement is reliable as it’s backed up by a statistics report. When there are more women in the company, they not only contribute, but also impact the company greatly in bringing more profits and reducing the risk of liquidation. In addition, Wolfe made another statement that can be supported by a contributor’s opinion in an article by Forbes. Wolfe (2017) states that as a women ascends the corporate leader, they received higher ratings from managers, subordinates and co-workers for being a better leader as compared to males. This is further supported by Andersen (2012) personal experience where she encounter women in upper management faring better in likability, co-worker relationship, team building, process floss and overall willingness to undertake responsibility of others and own actions. This implies that Wolfe claims in the article are valid as it is supported by Anderson real-life experience of women in upper management being effective leaders.

In conclusion, The Balance Careers article is more reliable as compared to The Business Time article in terms of the writer’s specialization, article credibility and the statements supported being by external sources. With this article being objective in showing the differences in engagement level between women and men as leaders, this will help the company to decide if women should take up senior positions in the company.