International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 15, No. 12; 2020 ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 122 Gender Role Perception in Society and Attitude towards Women Managers in Bangladesh ATM Jahiruddin 1 , Mir Sohrab Hossain 1 , Mehedi Hasan Md. Hefzur Rahman 1 & Shahanaz Akter 2 1 Business Administration Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh 2 Independent researcher, Business Administration Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh. Correspondence: ATM Jahiruddin, Business Administration Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh. E-mail: atmjahir@yahoo.com Received: September 1, 2020 Accepted: October 11, 2020 Online Published: November 10, 2020 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v15n12p122 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v15n12p122 Abstract This study investigates employees’ attitudes towards women managers in different types of organizations in the context of Bangladesh. Two groups of respondents – supervisors of the women managers and other employees who report to the women managers were selected for data collection through a multistage procedure. The study found that employees, on the whole, have an indifferent attitude towards women managers at the workplace. Among different aspects pertinent to women's leadership, the employees demonstrated a favorable attitude about the women managers’ knowledge and skill, while the employees feel that maternity and other feminine issues make women less desirable in the managerial positions. As the differences were investigated among the respondents of different demographic groups, significant differences were found among various groups based on gender, age, and sectors of employment. However, no significant difference was found among the employees based on their reporting relation with (supervisor and sub-ordinate) the women managers. Keywords: women managers, employees' attitude, leadership, and gender role perception 1. Introduction Increasing women’s participation in the workforce has been a key feature globally for the last few decades. In recent times, women’s proportion in the workforce has increased so rapidly in the developed countries in recent years that according to a prediction of the Economist (2009) number of women in the labor force would surpass the number of male in the USA in near future. Reflection on this global trend can also be noticed in Bangladesh. Although the proportion of working women among the women of working age is still much lower in Bangladesh (36%) compared to even some other developing countries (e.g. 67% in East Asia), this rate is much higher than it was before the 90s. Despite some significant achievements with regards to women’s empowerment in Bangladesh during the new millennium, strong patriarchy is believed to be a key feature in this country where women are expected to assume the role of subordination to men (Sultana, 2010; Mostafa, 2005). At the workplace, ideally, “leadership” should though be attributed based on the capabilities; constraints, and performance records, “think manager, think male” (Aycan, Bayazit, Berkman, & Boratav, 2012; Balgiu, 2013) remains as a global trend (Schein, 2001; Schein, Mueller, Lituchy & Liu, 1996). The tendency of attaching the leadership role to masculinity can though be noticed to some extent in all societies; it is more common in the developing countries. Because of the low rate of education, lack of resources, social and religious taboos, and poor rule of law, patriarchy seems to have a much stronger hold in the developing countries, and, as a result, leadership roles are by default attached to masculinity (Dormekpor, 2015; Balgiu, 2013). Alongside the momentum gained globally in the movements of women’s empowerment and priorities of international development partners (both government and non-government) on this issue, a wide range of government initiatives have significantly increased women’s participation at the workplace in almost all the sectors (Parvin, Ahsan, & Chowdhury, 2004). Prevalence of this gender-biased attitude about leadership role at the workplace may force the top management to restrict managerial positions only for male, which might result in several detrimental effects on the organization’s performance, employees’ morale, and fair human resources practice. At the same time, such actions may seriously impede the implementation of the Government agenda of