Queen Bee: Is A Woman Holding You Back?
Study Shows Women are Harming Women!
Do you work for a female manager who is biased against other women? Take Diane Danielson’s advice on Women’s Dish, “It’s time to buzz off!”
We’ve all encountered a Queen Bee. We know of that woman who wants to be the only female working with men. That’s one rationale. The other one I suspect is that she’s thinking, “I had to work twice as hard as a man to get here . . . so I’m making sure you don’t get it any easier!” If you’re working for a Queen Bee, that’s tough, really tough. She’s a gatekeeper to the glass ceiling—she demands a higher performance from a woman than from a man.
The term “queen bee” was coined by psychologists Staines, Tavris, and Jayaratne in 1974 based on their study of twenty thousand people. It’s a travesty that their analysis is still true today. They wrote, “The Queen Bee who is successful in a male-dominated field feels little animosity toward the system that that permitted her to reach the top, and little animosity toward the men who praise her for being so unique. She identifies with the specific male colleagues who are her reference group, rather than with the diffuse concept of women as a class… The Queen Bee thereby disassociates herself from the fundamental issues of equality for women, while reassuring her male colleagues that she is not of that militant ilk.”
Yes, we still see this today. Some Queen Bees may be unaware of their prejudice against women. Some may be aware, but think it’s not obvious to others. Some may think there are no repercussions, but they should be made aware of recent lawsuit awards to victims in both the U.S. and the U.K.
Next week, I’ll talk to you about another aspect of women holding women back. It comes from a new study out of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin showing that female and older participants showed more prejudice against the idea of a female leader than did male and younger participants. It’s something that’s even more prevalent than Q.B.’s.
Tip: I maintain that you have a little leverage here if your boss is a Q.B. because I bet she wouldn’t want others referring to her with that label. So, anonymously drop a copy of this article on her desk. Or, if you prefer, drop off copies of the recent lawsuits!
Further Reading:
WomensMedia Recommended Books, In the Company of Women: Turning Workplace Conflict into Powerful Alliances. by Pat Heim, Susan Murphy, Susan K. Golant (Contributor)
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