Queen Bee Phenomenon Scale: Psychometric Evidence in the Brazilian Context.
| Autor | Grangeiro, Rebeca da Rocha |
| Cargo | Research Article |
INTRODUCTION
Despite having expanded their human and social capital, women face the paradox of not being able to occupy senior management positions as often as men do (O'Neil, Hopkins, & Bilimoria, 2008). Census data show that women are more present than men in the highest levels of education (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia E Estatistica [IBGE], 2018), and present advances in middle management (IBGE, 2018). However, the boards of directors in large private companies (International Labor Office, 2019), or even the highest positions in public management (MotaSantos, Carvalho Neto, Oliveira, & Andrade, 2019), remain mostly male.
Although there is no gender parity in senior leadership positions, some professionals have succeeded in breaking the glass ceiling, contributing to the expansion of women into these positions (Meinhard & Faria, 2020). However, the performance of women in traditionally male positions is not calm and peaceful. Since leadership is associated with stereotypically male behaviors (Eagly & Carli, 2003), many women need to assume male behavior and distance themselves from other women. Staines, Travis, and Jayaratne (1974) were the first to associate such characteristics to the metaphor they called the queen bee syndrome. Ellemers (2001) understood the phenomenon as a response to social threat (Derks, Ellemers, Van-Laar, & Groot, 2011). In this view, the queen bee phenomenon can be seen as a response of women who experience low levels of gender identification at work, and whose social identity is threatened by male organizational culture (Derks, Ellemers, et al., 2011). Adopting the perspective of social identity, the queen bee phenomenon is considered in this article as an individual mobility behavior that allows women to reach positions of command in a context in which the female social identity is devalued (Derks, Van-Laar, & Ellemers, 2016).
Thus, the need for women in command positions to adjust their natural leadership style toward stereotypical characteristics of successful leaders makes them adopt agentic behaviors in distancing themselves physically and psychologically from women who are at the beginning of their careers, or at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy, to legitimize the gender hierarchy (Derks et al., 2016). Despite queen bee phenomenon criticisms (Mavin, 2008), recent studies have pointed out the male organizational context, and the female professional trajectory, marked by adversity, as drivers of this phenomenon (Faniko, Ellemers, Derks, & Lorenzi-Cioldi, 2017).
The queen bee phenomenon has been seen in European research assessing different work contexts: in universities (Ellemers, Heuvel, Gilder, Maass, & Bonvini, 2004), police service (Derks, Van-Laar, Ellemers, & Groot, 2011), and private companies (Faniko et al., 2017). However, the metaphor is little explored in Brazilian studies (e.g., Arvate, Galilea, & Todescat, 2018). Still, as far as the searches carried out by the authors, empirical studies on the queen bee phenomenon have produced quantitative procedures for data collection and analysis. Yet, there are no measures scaling the phenomenon in Brazilian or international studies. Searches were performed in the Scopus, Web of Science, Index Psi, LILACS, PubMed, Scielo, Spell, and Google Scholar databases to confirm this, using the descriptors: 'queen bee phenomenon' AND 'scale,' 'gender metaphors' AND 'scale.' The results of this search indicated the inexistence of measures to assess the phenomenon in question. Given this research gap for the subject, our study aimed to develop and validate a scale that assesses the queen bee phenomenon in a national context.
The study represents an opportunity to expand research on the queen bee phenomenon in Brazil, a country that, due to its colonization process, is socially marked by patriarchy (Teixeira, Galvao, Mota-Santos, & Carmo, 2021; Vieira, Carrieri, Monteiro, & Roquete, 2017). Despite the advances of women with regard to expanding education and conquering spaces in the labor market, the marks of patriarchy are preserved in Brazil, and can be perceived in established organizational power relations (Pereira, Nunes, & Oliveira, 2019; Vieira et al., 2017). Women continue to bear the full or principal responsibility of managing the home and family, which reduces both their attention and effort when related to their careers. This consequently presents a barrier to professional growth (Mota-Santos, Carvalho, Oliveira, & Andrade, 2019). In addition to having their image closely associated with motherhood, and although having children does not make up their repertoire of choices, they are still overlooked for professional ascension (Carrieri, Diniz, Souza, & Menezes, 2013; Mota-Santos et al., 2019).
Studying the queen bee phenomenon in a country with cultural characteristics that differ from those where the phenomenon is most frequently investigated potentially allows generalization of the phenomenon, as well as the relative involvements of women within the phenomenon. Further, the deepening of studies on this metaphor through its correlations with elements of organizational culture, as well as comparing queen bee traits in both women and men, allows us to investigate relationships between women in the workplace, and also contextualize and question their inter-competitiveness in the Brazilian national context.
THE QUEEN BEE PHENOMENON: ATTITUDINAL FEATURES
Many studies demonstrate that the performance of women in strategic leadership positions can help create opportunities for other women (Arvate et al., 2018), encourage solidarity (Mavin, 2008), and promote responsibility in both demonstrating awareness and representing females in managerial practice, in addition to creating a commitment to change social structures for the benefit of women (Mavin, 2006). However, theoretical assessments of the queen bee phenomenon argue that this posture of solidarity is not universal (Faniko et al., 2017). Further, these understandings should not be investigated in isolation, as commonly carried out by the media (Khazan, 2017). As variables, experiences and organizational models must be analyzed together with the known features that make up the phenomenon.
Organizations mostly dominated by men maintain many mechanisms of discrimination that reinforce gender stereotypes and perpetuate inequality between men and women, hindering female professional advancement (Acker, 1990). Studies reveal that the experiences of discrimination faced by women throughout their professional trajectories are a constant determinant that makes up the queen bee phenomenon (Derks et al., 2016). Lack of female support itself stems from flawed working conditions that enhance masculinity and discredit female skills (Webber & Giuffre, 2019). A strategy often used by women to face the visible and invisible barriers imposed in organizations is to adopt gender behaviors that bring greater social prestige (Eagly & Carli, 2003).
Derks, Van Laar and Ellemers (2016) point out that instead of collectively facing the inequality established by traditional social structures, some women, when occupying commissioned or leadership positions, tend to perpetuate the sexist culture. This adaptive behavior reduces solidarity relationships within the disadvantaged group, imposes obstacles to female ascension, and limits both opportunities and gains arising from gender diversity in organizations, in addition to stimulating the emergence of behaviors characteristic of the queen bee phenomenon.
The queen bee phenomenon is attributed to psychological mechanisms such as: (1) male selfdescription; (2) strong engagement with one's career; (3) perception of sacrifices made in order to favor one's career; (4) denial of gender discrimination in one's organizational environment; (5) adherence to the meritocratic discourse; and (6) little or no support for affirmative action policies for quantitative gender equality.
Male self-description points out that to improve their social position and approximate characteristics related to men's leadership style, women in leadership positions adopt a more masculine posture (Derks et al., 2016), since this provides more status and power within the organization (Derks, Ellemers, et al., 2011). Empirical evidence from studies carried out with women in a managerial context (Faniko, Ellemers, & Derks, 2016), in the police service (Derks, Ellemers, et al., 2011; Derks, Van Laar, & Ellemers, 2011), and in the academy (Ellemers et al., 2004; Faniko, Ellemers, & Derks, 2021) has revealed high male self-description scores. In the engineering sector in Canada, women have even come to describe themselves as non-girls (Harvey & Tremblay, 2020).
In addition to presenting themselves as more masculine than their co-workers, they also declare themselves as more ambitious and 'assess their career commitment as superior to that of other women' (Faniko et al., 2016). Women who aspire to occupy positions of command, in various work contexts, realize that they need to be more dedicated to work to prove that they are competent (e.g., Ellemers et al., 2004; Faniko et al., 2017; Harvey & Tremblay, 2020). Greater commitment to their career is necessary, since they face less favorable conditions and receive fewer resources when compared to men in the same positions (Faniko et al., 2017).
High career commitment behavior is related to the perception of personal sacrifices and efforts in favor of one's career. Successful women who manifest queen bee traits highlight having made greater sacrifices than their peers who are in lower positions at the beginning of their professional careers or who prioritize love and family issues (Ellemers et al., 2004; Faniko et al., 2017). Sacrifices or choices in favor of a career are related to a woman's private life choices, such as getting married and having children, and the effort a woman needs to make in the context of work...
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