Women Managers’ Impact on Use of Family-friendly Measures among Their Subordinates in Japanese Firms
利用日本调查数据，研究女性管理者是否比男性管理者更能促进下属（尤其是男性）使用育儿假等家庭友好措施，发现女性管理者更可能支持下属的家庭需求，但同样面临管理缺勤的挑战。
Using data from the Survey on Support for Work–Life Balance conducted in Japan, this study investigates the role of female managers in enhancing their male and female subordinates’ access to family-friendly measures in the workplace. Research on organisational gender inequality has proposed two contrasting perspectives regarding the impact of female managers on gender inequality, describing female managers as either ‘change agents’ or ‘cogs in the machine’. However, previous research has rarely investigated whether female managers address men’s limited access to family-friendly measures, which is often the hidden side of the coin of gender imbalance in male-dominated organisations. Results indicate that female managers were more likely to have subordinates who take parental leave and to exhibit stronger support for male subordinates’ family-related requests than male managers, although, like male managers, they reported feeling that managing their sections during these absences is a challenge. The implications of the findings are discussed.