Poll: Many Women Down On Women Bosses

Meryl Streep plays a female "boss from hell" in "The Devil Wears Prada" and, while her character may be an extreme, it turns out many women prefer men for bosses.

A recent survey by Lifetime Women's Pulse found that, of the women who had a preference, most would rather work for a man. Of the 800 women polled, 47 percent of Generation Y respondents and 43 percent of baby boomers preferred a male boss, while 31 percent of Generation Y women and 28 percent of baby boomers wanted a woman for a boss.

What's at work in this workplace trend?

Career consultant Ronna Lichtenberg told co-anchor Hannah Storm on The Early Show Wednesday the women who would rather work for a man probably feel it's "easier, in some ways. With women, there's always an emotional connection, so it's a little more complicated. You know what? If it's a good job, I can't believe anybody really cares."

Generation Y women seem to be more open to working for other women, Lichtenberg said, "because there are more of us, thank goodness, and it's more common than it used to be. So, if you look at the trend over the last 20 years, it's really getting to be easier to think about working for another woman."

The Early Show sampled the opinions of women on the streets of Manhattan, and several preferred male bosses.

One said, "You can talk to him about anything, where I found, with a lot of the female bosses, they had their own issues. So they didn't want to know about your issues."

Remarked another, "I find having a female boss kind of trying, you know. There's a lot of cattiness and competition."

To which Lichtenberg responded, "You know, you sort of get what you're looking for. If you go in thinking that another woman's going to be a problem, then she is.

"Your attitude really matters, and that's kind of the big takeaway for me. What you expect your boss to be like, and your attitude toward her, are going to influence it. I've never seen a situation where someone says, 'I really hate my boss,' and the boss really likes that person. It's both ways."Of the women who told The Early Show they like having women for bosses, one observed, "Most of my bosses that I've had so far have been women, and I just feel it's easier to talk to them. I don't think there's any kind of -- there's less of a barrier."

So, asked Storm of Lichtenberg, should we behave differently with a male or female boss, or treat both the same?

"I think it's always a little different," Lichtenberg replied. "With the male boss, I can remember I always had to pretend to be interested in sports, which I never was. So now with women clients who are my bosses, I can talk about shoes, which is more natural."

She offered some quick tips for dealing with supervisors of either sex: