First Females: Must They Be Queen Bees?
Dear friends of women in science,
Emma Gray at Huffington Post recently posted an article claiming Queen Bee Syndrome is old hat (see it here.) She said that women today are more likely to cooperate and foster the careers of their subordinates rather than re-enacting the Miranda Priestly role from "The Devil Wears Prada." But even though the atmosphere has warmed up re female bosses, the stereotype of the Queen Bee is still out there.
She quoted a study by Catalyst of 742 MBA male and female graduates from 2008 to 2010, but I think we could see similar trends among STEM professionals. There was an interesting "pay it forward" aspect to the findings as well. She said "Of this group, 65 percent of women who had received career support went on to return the favor to the next batch of emerging leaders, compared to 56 percent of men in the same situation. Out of the women who said they were developing talent, 73 percent said they are developing other women, the study showed." Doesn't sound much like Queen Bees, does it? But the rumors of it being bad to work for a woman persist. Gray suggests that it's because women are rare at the top that it's hard to get rid of an inaccurate stereotype; women run only 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies, so most people in business haven't had the female leader to test their ideas against reality.
Then Gray quotes Gail Evans, Author of Play Like a Man, Work Like a Woman, in saying that the Queen Bee idea is generational. She quotes Evans, "I think there certainly were Queen Bees around when the workplace was about scarcity for women. You ended up with women who were older who had given up a lot to get to those [leadership] positions. Their life was the job and their deep belief was 'I had to work hard, I had to give up a lot, it was tough to get here and the way in which I mentor younger women is to toughen them out.'" So the First Females, at least in an older generation like mine, could still be queening it up out there.
What, if anything, have you experienced with women as leaders? Queen Bee or helpful to other women?
cheers,
Laura
Hi Helen,
I must say, a lot of the earliest women had only their science as a reward. I have students too, but usually they (McClintock and Levi-Montalcini for example) didn't teach much at all. And their colleagues were often dismissive because they were women, although there were some who were good supporters. But that gives a person a whole peck of bitterness to work out of.
I think the Queen Bee syndrome is most characteristic of these first workaholic loners. I suppose that it seemed good and fair that those women coming after should have to climb the same challenging barriers to be accepted. I'm glad we're moving past those days to a more mentoring approach.
cheers,
Laura
I've never known a 1st woman to not be a Queen Bee. It's one of the things that so turned me off academic science. These women were supposed to be my role models?!
But in industry I've been fortunate that there have been some terrific mentors who are 2nd or even 3rd "generation" leaders who exemplify the Catalyst study.
So I suppose it's a matter of numbers again. Once there are enough women in science who have had good mentoring, you will eventually get fewer Queen Bees. But I wonder how much their own life satisfaction plays? Without them being able to have families as well as careers in science I wonder if it will take them longer to lose the bitter veneer?
Dear Laura,
I have only had one woman boss, and she was simply cold and efficient, not demanding like that woman in Prada or malicious either. She never smiled at any of us or encouraged us in any way, male or female. I did see her smile at her own male superior once or twice, though. I didn't think she was unfair to women, but she sure didn't feel like a mentor in any way shape or form.
Nelda
Hi Laura,
I have had both kinds of women bosses, ones that were capricious and demanding and ones that encouraged and helped other women. It may be an age difference; that was true in the case of the harsh one I had, she was older. I doubt if she thought harshness would help us; she was simply mean to everyone around her.
MC
