The relationship of supervisor and trainee gender match and gender attitude match to supervisory style and the supervisory working allianc

The findings from empirical research on gender issues in clinical supervision are equivocal. Most researchers have merely examined biological sex as it is related to supervision variables. However, attitudes toward gender may better account for supervision process and outcome than simply biological sex. Further, the match between gender and gender attitudes of the supervisor and trainee may be related to supervision variables. Thus, this study examined the relationship of gender match and gender attitude match to supervisor style and the supervisory working alliance. Data were collected from supervisory dyads in order to gain information from the perspectives of both the trainee and the supervisor. Results suggested that gender match and gender attitude match were not significantly related to supervisory style or to the supervisory working alliance with one exception. Dyads in which the supervisor was more liberal than the trainee in terms of gender attitude toward Societal Organization were rated significantly higher by supervisors on a Task-Oriented style of supervision than dyads in which both members were relatively liberal in gender attitudes toward Societal Organization. Implications for these findings and limitations of the study are discussed.