Queen Bee Syndrome

Is Queen Bee Syndrome losing its sting to the emerging “Persisterhood” Narrative?

With so much of the social media messaging focusing on women empowering women and women supporting women, how do we explain Queen Bee Syndrome – that phenomenon where high ranking women in positions of authority treat the women who work below them more critically than their male counterparts and even that they can oppose or hinder the advancement of other women.

This episode addresses this difficult issue and identifies the biases that contribute to it. What do lobsters in a boiling pot of water have to do with women’s advancement – find out in this episode which addresses how bias against women can foster conflict among women – and what we can do to interrupt that pattern that does not serve us.

We address patterns like distancing oneself from “other” women (disassociating), assimilating (to masculine gender stereotypical traits), destructive leadership behaviors (bullying, ridiculing, or harassing), and system justification (people defending and justifying these highly resilient negative stereotypes) which can result when organizations create a win-lose environment where tokenism and gender inequality are deeply entrenched in the culture.

This episode discusses the research that shows how the queen bee phenomenon can be a consequence of gender biased social and organizational structures and circumstances.

We challenge the narratives that perpetuate the image of women being difficult to work for or with or out of place in senior leadership roles. Narratives that preserve a gendered status quo that just does not work for women, and I will show how we can use the 4Ps advancement model to interrupt negative patterns.

Finally, we discuss what organizations need can do to reward the behaviors that create supportive environments that keep Queen Bee Syndrome at bay.

Maya Angelou famously said do your best until you know better than do better. That really sums up the purpose of the #advancingwomenpodcast. That more of us can KNOW…and that knowing will help us all DO better.

Learn more about the 4 Ps Advancement Model ™ @ www.advancingwomenpodcast.com

Email me to share ideas or feedback @ drdesimone@advancingwomenpodcast.com

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