Queen bee syndrome

Queen bee syndrome could be partially attributed to long-standing societal gender stereotypes wherein women are perceived to be lacking traditional leadership and achievement-oriented qualities (i.e., assertiveness, decisiveness)– often seen as synonymous with masculinity. This brings upon pressure for professional women to adopt these qualities, especially in work environments where men are the majority. It's believed that high-achieving women develop queen bee syndrome due to the lack of opportunities for women in the professional sector. With few top spots available to women, especially those of colour, “queen bees” feel they need to protect their place by exhibiting "masculine" traits as a form of self-group distancing. As iterated by N. Ellemers et al., “survival of women in male-dominated work environment entails a form of individual mobility, in the sense that they have to prove to themselves and others that they are unlike other women in order to be successful”.[8] In a 1976 study by Ruble & Higgins, their research suggested that when females are in the minority of a group, which in high-level professional sectors is often the case, they described themselves in more "masculine" terms.[9]

Gender stereotypes plague women in many arenas, notably in the workplace and in academia. Men have monopolized most positions of power since time immemorial, therefore their leadership styles have been predominantly masculine. Women encounter much difficulty in their attempts to earn these positions, afflicted with the negative “feminine” stereotypes of emotional instability, low career commitment, and lack of leadership skills, to name a few. It seems probable that the queen bee phenomenon arose as a symptom of gender stereotyping, forcing women to alienate themselves from other women and subsequently their perceived negative traits.[2]

In childhood, boys are socialized to be leaders and decision-makers, meanwhile girls are warned that if they're too “bossy”, they won't be liked. In an experiment by Joyce Benenson, she discovered that among five-year-old children in a competitive scenario, the dominant boy was revered by the other boys, however the dominant girl was disliked by the other girls.[10] Coming into adolescence and adulthood, moving into leadership positions already poses a challenge for women who haven’t been afforded the same opportunities to lead as their male counterparts.[11]

In 1994, V. O’Leary and M. M. Ryan argued that high-achieving women might be perceived as “queen bees” due to the fact that their female employees struggle to see them as the boss; seeing their women bosses as women and their men bosses as bosses. They suggested that perhaps female employees held their women bosses to a double standard, expecting them to be more understanding, nurturing, and forgiving (traditional “feminine” traits) than men bosses.[5]

There is an assumption that women are part of an unspoken sisterhood, and when some women move up the ranks into more powerful positions, they must adopt different qualities in order to fit in and gain respect– qualities that are less than congruent with solidarity or sisterhood. As J. Wacjman articulates, “...women's presence in the world of men is conditional on them being willing to modify their behavior to become more like men or to be perceived as more male than men". High-achieving women don’t have a lot of options; in modifying their behavior to be more conducive to leadership, they alienate themselves from other women and are seen as traitors, yet by sticking with the unspoken sisterhood, they struggle to gain traction professionally. When ambitious women choose to do what it takes to advance their careers, they often get labelled the “queen bee” due to the skewed perceptions of women in positions of power and leadership.[5]

Social categorization, or self-categorization theory, is a psychological theory closely related to the processes of social perception wherein a person groups themselves and others into categories based on shared characteristics.[18] This theory is thought to be ingrained since infancy and affects the way people perceive others– as part of a broader social grouping rather than as individuals.[19] By way of social categorization, a subconscious process for the most part, individuals are assigned pre-designated traits as part of their larger group or category. For women in the workplace, social categorization works to their disadvantage as they are assigned stereotypically feminine traits such as being agreeable, helpful, sympathetic, and kind– and therefore perceived as less capable in leadership roles. When high-achieving women present themselves as anything less than those designated traits, they are often labeled as "bitches" or more specifically, "queen bees". Men are seen as great leaders for being ambitious and assertive, whereas women are often viewed as “unfeminine”, “bossy” or “bitchy” for exhibiting those same traits.[11]

In the professional sector, an in-group is a (typically exclusive) network of people from any given workplace who participate in informal get-togethers or events outside of work. It is at these informal get-togethers where colleagues get to know one another on a personal level and industry knowledge or workplace gossip is often shared. Beyond that, being a part of an in-group can lead to career advantages down the road. More often than not, it seems women and people of colour are scarcely included in these exclusive groups due to affinity bias– the tendency to favour those similar to us– exhibited by their male superiors.[11][20] In social psychology, there is another term, similarity attraction, which may contribute to why high-level male executives tend to promote men over equally-qualified women.[10] With fewer spots left at the top for women and a harder climb to get there, queen bee syndrome remains as a fighting-mechanism for ambitious females.[21]

A 2008 study found that men who expressed anger in the workplace were given a higher status, while women who expressed anger in the workplace were given a lower status, regardless of their actual position in the company. A trainee and a CEO who were female were both given a low status when displaying anger. Additionally, women who displayed anger in the workplace were assumed to have something internal influencing their anger, as opposed to having an external reason to be angry. Men more often had their anger attributed to an external cause.[23]

The expression of anger is believed to be related to status, as anger is considered a status emotion. Positive impressions of those who display anger are reserved for people who are stereotypically conferred a higher status. A 2007 study found that female employees in a subordinate position displayed anger toward higher status employees much less frequently than their male counterparts. This suggests that the stereotypical norm of men displaying anger carries over into the workplace, while the norm of women restraining displays of anger also carries over. It also suggests that, although men in low level positions in the workplace possess a low status in this context, they may carry over the higher status that comes with their gender. Women do not possess this high status; therefore the low status that low-level women possess in the workplace is the sole status that matters.[24]

The queen bee phenomenon still has no male-equivalent term, perhaps because male competition is seen as normal, healthy behavior, and as children it’s even encouraged. Female competition however, is looked down upon– from childhood onward, women in competition are labeled as backstabbing, conniving, catty “mean girls”. There are countless books and movies portraying the concept that it has started to become the standard. Despite the prevalence of material depicting queen bee behavior among females, studies have shown that men actually participate in similar to elevated levels of indirect aggression linked to queen bee behavior (i.e., gossiping, rumour spreading, social exclusion) in comparison to women.[25] Admittedly, young boys tend to display physical aggression more than young girls at any age, but a 1992 study demonstrated that as boys reach the age of 11, verbal and indirect aggression levels rise. Verbal and indirect aggression requires a degree of social intelligence and understanding of interpersonal relationships, skills that girls tend to develop earlier than boys (around the age of 8). A 2005 study in Britain asked university students to report how often they either experienced, or participated in forms of indirect aggression (specifically social exclusion, use of malicious humour, and guilt induction). The results presented no differences between the experiences of men and women based on these self-reported numbers.[26]