Since the early 1970's, the rise of feminism and changing American economics have fostered a dramatic increase in the number of female supervisors. During the course of one's career, encountering a female manager in the work place increases in probability. Clearly, some differences between female and male executives can be anticipated. As a result, male and female managers may be compared to determine which is preferable for the employee in the areas of working personality, managerial style, and dedication to the company. To begin, one can easily see that some aspects of the female and male supervisors' working personalities differ. For example, all too often the female manager has risen to her position by being an overachieving perfectionist. In her pursuit of flawlessness, she uses twice the time as her male counterpart to accomplish any given task, meanwhile driving her secretary into hysterics. Furthermore, she may perform "white glove" inspections, ensuring no extraneous microscopic marks appear on her reports. Although this may be true of the female executive, she often has the extraordinary ability to be very intuitive in recognizing personal problems of her employees, but this trait is often negated by her overly competitive attitude and fear that someone may want her job. On the other hand, the male manager has risen to his position by displaying more humanistic qualities. Maintaining a sense of flexibility, he motivates his workers through his understanding and considerate nature. In addition, to build a cohesive working group, the male supervisor has learned the art of empathetic listening and avoids being too judgmental. Consequently, when the female and male executives are faced with time sensitive projects, the rigid, perfectionist female requires her employees to work through lunch, while the more flexible male realizes breaking for lunch will make his workers more effective upon their return. These differences in male and female managerial personalities will affect the employee's morale and attitude toward his work. Additionally, although male and female supervisors have many points in common, they often have differing managerial styles. While both are goal oriented, the female manager often has a more authoritarian leadership style, thereby stifling the free exchange of ideas. Consequently, once the female executive reaches a decision, she is often reluctant to allow any further discussion or modification of her plan. As a result, she is extremely effective at making quick, decisive judgments. In contrast, the male manager generally has a team perspective and a participatory decision-making approach. For example, he presides over staff meetings with a democratic leadership style, allowing everyone to speak. The two divergent leadership styles may be seen when female and male executives are presented with a concept for change. For instance, the female's subordinate employee may be hesitant to voice a suggestion or rush the presentation for fear of instant rejection by the female supervisor. In contrast the atmosphere created by the male executive encourages frank and open discussion allowing subordinate employees a voice in decision making. One can see from these differences,
