Queen Bee Syndrome

The “Queen Bee” label is given to women in leadership positions who have become successful in male-dominated work settings by trying to fit in with the masculine culture, presenting themselves in a masculine fashion, and dissociating themselves from their female colleagues. Research on this phenomenon has revealed three categories of Queen Bee behavior that senior women may show:

• 1.
  Becoming more like men. Because stereotypes about the characteristics of successful leaders (i.e., agentic qualities) and the gender roles of women (i.e., communal qualities) are incongruent, some women try to resolve these contradictory demands by emphasizing masculine characteristics (e.g. assertiveness, taking risks, competitiveness) and an agentic leadership style (e.g. charismatic, dominant).[Page 1298]
• 2.
  Emphasizing how they are different from other women. For example, in an attempt to escape negative gender ...