Reality one: women bosses. Reality two: men yapping about it. So-are they willing to go on record with at least some of it? And what is it that they're saying? Hear out Ashish Baxi, an executive at ICICI Bank. "In my office," he chortles, "women are given preference, since various important departments are headed by women. Assuming that a woman gets 80 on a scale of 100, and a man gets full 100, one can be certain that the woman will get promoted, not the man." He speaks in jest, part-jest.

Officially, ICICI Bank-with a one-third female workforce-does not consider gender differences an hr issue, least of all any discomfort males might feel at 'taking orders' from females. Bankers are bankers, and abilities have no correlation with gender. Likewise for most other corporates. Therefore: no issue. But more than half of an informal sampling of men, and a handful of women executives we spoke to, disagree.

Does the truth lie somewhere inbetween? It's a good time to ask, given the way the Indian corporate scenario is changing, amidst growing consciousness of gender equality, even as conservative forces tug backwards. Are Indian male executives really at ease with women authority figures?

First The Good News

Considerable progress have been made over the past decade. "In my 25 years of working life," says Renu Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC Limited, "I have seen a major positive transition happen, especially in the last 10 years." Though she sees some barriers in such sectors as manufacturing, she is pleased by the acceptance of female bosses in most service-oriented sectors, particularly retail, which is typically seen as an industry in need of strong intuitive skills.

When it comes to a 'boss' as a symbol of authority, though, the Male Boss is still what fits best into the classic archetype (think of it as a 'mould') in most people's heads. Blame centuries and centuries of conditioning. Slow to loosen, but loosening nonetheless. And that's good.

"I have had both men and women reporting to me in my thirty one years of service," says Uma P. Desai, 55, Assistant General Manager, Export Credit and Guarantee Corp. "I feel that as a boss, if you are understanding and friendly towards your subordinates, either of the sexes shouldn't have problems reporting to a woman boss." She's clear about that.

Nods Suraj Dalvi, an ex-fund manager, who makes a point of enlightened self-interest. "Sound work-knowledge is one obvious aspect," he says, "but the person has to have vision and man-management skills to run an organisation. Then respect flows automatically. After all, when the boss grows, I as a subordinate will also grow with the organisation. It's a mutually beneficial formula." Nishit Bhattacharya, a senior executive at a telecom firm, does not find it difficult reporting to a female boss either. "It's only that she should deserve to be the boss, which my boss doesn't," he growls. Why? She hogs the credit he feels is due to him.

According to Karnad, there are two types of men: the first category to whom it doesn't matter who they report to, and the second, who find it difficult having to report to a woman. "Thankfully," she says, "at HDFC, most men fall in the first category. But when one deals with people outside one's organisation, one does come across men who make it obvious that they'd rather have a man to talk to. It's simply hilarious at times." On a recent trip to a small North Indian city, she found her interlocutor responding only to questions posed by her junior male colleague. Men who play dominant patriarchal roles in their own homes, she observes, have the most trouble with new realities.

If there's an age gap, it's even more difficult. When Prachi Sinha, a 28-year-old IAS officer, took charge of a Government department as boss, she was faced with stiff resistance. "Some 40 per cent of the people who reported to me were my father's age," she recalls, "I had some real tough nuts to crack, but I survived." Male staffers avoided her, till she actually established her presence as an officer who gets work done, and the tasks at hand started taking precedence over her gender in their minds.

''The rural hinterland can be terrible,'' says Sonakshi Mantri, a 32-year-old marketing manager at an MNC pharma company. "We are used to people doubting our capabilities because we are women," she smiles. No big hassle there. So long as the immediate office culture is reasonably enlightened...

Now The Bad News

Thankfully, male executives do have their moments of weakness, when they're willing to be blunt. Unwilling to have their identities revealed, but blunt nonetheless. None of them claim to have any 'gender issue', since nobody is a chauvinist. But yes, they admit to some bar-stool grumbling in their all-male groupings.

"I'd rather have somebody as boss I can slap on the back after two drinks," says a banker, complaining about the formality that enters the picture with a female boss. "The modus operandi is very different with a lady boss," adds a software man, "It's all very prim and proper, and we miss the kind of informal work-related chat over the drink kind-of-thing with a male boss."

Needless to say, female bosses do not see the 'zero bonding' criticism as valid. Priti Sharma, a marketing manager with an FMCG company, for example, says every boss is entitled to a personal style of work. "We go out for drinks, indulge in long discussions over diverse topics of interest both related and unrelated to work. It's all very professional, yet informal," she says, of her own style. Other women may prefer different ways of generating team spirit, and that's up to them. Why complain?

Yet, probe a little deeper, and you can often detect a stronger whiff of male angst. One telecom executive complains about the strain in interpersonal relations that a woman boss can allegedly cause. "The difference is that guys don't take things personally," he gripes, speaking of his own experience, "With my earlier boss, even if I pointed out mistakes, he could accept it and go on, instead of holding a grudge." In this view, women are not self-assured enough to make good bosses. And this is often explained as a natural consequence of the male-dominated environment. Catch 22.

For another Catch 22 at work, as men would have it, listen to those who get worked up about 'merit' getting the go-by in all this. "I would be okay with a female boss," says an engineer, "but only if she actually deserves the job, and I think that would be a rare case. I'm not a chauvinist saying so, I'm just saying that the way our society is structured, a woman always becomes boss through a godfatherly favour or family inheritance or something."

Ouch! Such preconceived notions can be self-fulfilling. Anyhow, getting into the meritocracy debate is not the point of this report. What can be said is that misperceptions and misgivings still abound, which is sad. But then, more the thought devoted to the issue, the more they loosen. Or ought to loosen. To conclude, consider this anonymous quote: "I like being miss-underestimated. It helps me win."