Queen Bees still buzzing, but it's time they stepped up for other women - Women's Agenda

Queen Bees still buzzing, but it’s time they stepped up for other women

We all understand the concept of the workplace as a hive, particularly within big corporate firms and the public sector. There is a definite structure, and a common goal; to see success – and to defend against threats, whether they be internal or external, direct or indirect. But what happens when that hive turns into a place that carries more than a small sting in its tail?

Does the ‘Queen Bee’ exist?

Columbia Business School recently released the results of a 20 year survey of 1,500 companies with respect to ‘Queen Bee Syndrome’, a term coined by the research team of Staines, Jayaratne and Tavis at the University of Michigan in 1973.

In essence, the phenomenon describes a woman of authority in the workplace who treats or views her subordinates more critically if they are female. There have been a number of studies since the original 1973 report was submitted that suggest this is true, and equally that a ‘Queen Bee’ is a woman who has succeeded in her career, and yet refuses to actively help other women to achieve in the same way.

So what did the Columbia research show? Is the Queen dead, or is it a case of a truism being true?

Unfortunately, what it has to say is nothing particularly positive. Granted, it suggests that the Queen Bee is a myth, but rather than going on to say that the workplace is in fact a place heading towards equity, it reinforces an equally dismal stereotype; that women have a different enemy.

“Women face an implicit quota, whereby firms seek to maintain a small number of women on their top management team, usually only one.”

Yet again, lines are being drawn between men and women in the workplace, which discourages the opportunity to work and collaborate together. Any emphasis placed on this kind of polarisation is not helpful, nor useful. It also doesn’t really address the question of whether women have in the past been guilty of this behaviour.

It is human nature to protect hard fought for territory

When women first started to take a leading role within management, then it was inevitable that there would be a degree of marginalising behaviour. It is human nature to protect hard fought for, and hard-won territory. The Columbia Study seems to be slightly glib in its dismissal of the Queen Bee within today’s corporate environs however, even if the definition of that Queen is slightly different to the way Staines and company saw her in 1973.

Time to stand up and sponsor others

Strong, empowered women in today’s workplace are not standing up – as a general rule – for the younger women coming up through the ranks.

They are not providing enough active mentoring and sponsoring, and through this lack of duty of care, they are committing sabotage. It may not be malicious, and it may not be bitchy, but it is sabotage just the same, and therefore the Queen Bee tag stands. If a woman in a leadership role is not prepared to give encouragement, support, and provide a strong, positive role model for those who are in the lower levels of management – and even for her peers – then she is guilty of preventing success.

On the whole, the number of women who are willing to give time to sponsor in the workplace is negligible, and countless studies continue to show that when sponsorship is a part of workplace culture, like sponsors like. Therefore, if a company has a 70/30-male/female ratio of senior management, then 70% of those sponsored are automatically going to be male. Take those numbers further down, because of course the percentage of managers who will actually take on a sponsorship role is perhaps 25%, and you are looking at a very small funnel of female talent.

Plug the drain

This is the insidious and almost unseen side of bad female leadership, and it needs to stop.

The drain of incredible skills, innovation, ideas, and energy from the corporate world is continuing to grow, because the Queen Bees are not making the effort to engage, support and strengthen younger women of worth – or show men that they should be doing the same. That in itself is inexcusable and is the opposite of what they have purportedly fought for – workplace equality – as there is no display of character to illustrate women should be leading in the boardroom and beyond.

Time to stop buzzing, and simply get busy.

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