Women vs. men: Who's the better leader for creating a safe work environment?

When Annie Oakley and Frank Butler tried to outdo one another while singing, “anything you can do, I can do better,” they weren’t talking about creating safe and respectful work environments. But if they had been, Oakley would’ve won hands down.

That’s according to a new survey, “Women and Leadership 2018,” from the Pew Research Center, which gathered some noteworthy data from nearly 4,600 Americans about their views on gender and the workplace. The results should be of interest to any business, especially as the #MeToo movement roars ahead, and risk managers are often tasked with preventing workplace harassment. 

For starters, 43% of the respondents said female executives are better than men at creating safe and respectful workplaces — only 5% said men were tops.

Meanwhile, 59% of the survey takers said there weren’t enough women in top executive positions in the country today. Broken down by gender, 48% of the men in the survey and 70% of the women felt that way.

4.8% of Fortune 500 CEO are women

“It’s worth noting that women are vastly underrepresented in top business positions, both at the CEO level and immediately below it. Currently, 4.8% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women,” Kim Parker, director of social trends research at Pew Research Center, wrote in the survey report.

The results also revealed that respondents saw a correlation between a dearth of women execs and sexual harassment in the workplace with 42% citing harassment as a “major reason” that women don’t succeed. Half of the women in the survey said harassment curbed their ability to succeed, while only a third of men saw it as a problem.

Here are some other key takeaways:

• Female business leaders do better than men when it comes to valuing people from different backgrounds, according to 35% of the survey takers. Only 3% said male leaders were better in this category, while 62% said both genders were equal.
• Thirty-three percent (33%) of respondents saw females as being more aware of the societal impact of their business decisions, compared with 8% who said males were more considerate.
• But when it comes to being willing to take risks, men are seen as having an edge, according to 41% of the respondents, compared with 8% who said women were better at this. And 28% believed that men were superior negotiators, while 9% said women had the advantage and 61% saw no difference.

Related: Insights for handling a sexual harassment claim

Phillip Bantz is a reporter for our sister ALM Media publication, Corporate Counsel. Follow him on Twitter @PhillipBantz.