Why Female Bosses Matter

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

We all know that having a role model to look up to can help us grow and advance in our careers. Being able to see “someone like you” thrive at the top is an inspiring privilege that the first generation of women to enter the workforce in large numbers did not have for themselves.

Even today, there are few women leading corporations or law firms, and that means it can be difficult to envision your own self becoming a leader when no one in executive leadership resembles you or knows from experience the kind of challenges you’ve faced. But fortunately, as more and more women are finding ways to make it work, more junior female professionals are able to climb to the next rung of the ladder.

And in fact, one new study out of Wharton and Harvard Business School, shows that the number of female supervisors has a direct impact on the promotion of women in up-or-out professions.

But – the study is complicated. While female bosses do help women climb the ladder a little easier in up-or-out jobs, people are more likely to leave a firm when there is a higher proportion of peers of the same gender. In clearer terms, more women on a team means more women will leave the company. Similarly, more men on a team means more men will leave that company.

The researchers, Katherine L. Milkman and Kathleen L. McGinn, believe the root cause of this is the intersection of “social cohesion” and “social comparison,” in the particular context of a competitive up-or-out environment. Fortunately, there is a solution, and leaders who can crack the challenge here have a better chance of increasing the number of women making it to the top in the future.

Cohesion and Comparison

In their research, Milkman and McGinn studied personnel data at an up-or-out law firm for five years, tracking over 600 people. They used qualitative and quantitative data to figure out why some people advanced and others didn’t.

Role Models: They found that when women had a female supervisor, they were more likely to be promoted. They explain:

“Reflecting social cohesion within subordinate-supervisor relationships, the junior attorneys in our study turned to demographically similar seniors in their workgroups for support and sponsorship. Reflecting positive upward social comparisons across hierarchical levels, junior professionals identified demographically similar seniors as role models and looked to their representation in the senior ranks of their workgroup to predict whether people like themselves could succeed in the firm.”

Basically, women built sponsorship relationships with female supervisors, which helped them advance (that’s the social cohesion part). And when they looked around and recognized other women advancing, they were more likely to believe they could do it too (that’s the social comparison part).

Peers: On the other hand, and this applies to both women and men, when people on an up-or-out team were surrounded by demographically similar individuals, they were less likely to stick with the firm. This seems surprising – you would expect people to be more likely to stay if their teammates were “like them.”

But, it turns out that in this particular firm (and likely other up-or-out hierarchical organizations), social cohesion was low and social comparison is high amongst peers. That means people are less likely to build strong relationships with their colleagues – work is done on a fairly individualized basis and there isn’t much opportunity for socializing.

At the same time, people are working in a pyramid-shaped promotion structure, where there are more people than available promotions, and in an up-or-out environment this makes people even more competitive. They start to naturally compare themselves to the individuals most like them demographically, become frustrated, and leave.

How Female Bosses Can Make the Difference

There is a solution though. Women leaders at firms can help provide support and sponsorship, as well as be the role models that help junior women recognize their own potential. But they can also change the dynamic when it comes to culture.

Milkman and McGinn suggest that organizations need to take a second look at how promotion policy may be creating a culture where even high performers feel they are being pushed out because of their gender or race. Female leaders can be a voice in support of building a more cohesive culture in which everyone can succeed to the best of their abilities.

Chairing or sponsoring networks is one way female supervisors can support a greater sense of community, but simply speaking up about the ways in which women are pushed out of the job can make a big difference in building cohesion.