ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Gender, Sex and Sexualities
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1554275
A battle in the hive against the Queen Bee: Reaction of Female Subordinates' Unconcious Mind
Provisionally accepted
- Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Türkiye
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The divergent perspectives of women's conduct towards each other are perplexing. While women are expected to conform to societal norms that require them to collaborate with one another, they are also required to adjust to a highly competitive work atmosphere. It is unfair to say that men who engage in competitive behaviour are viewed more favourably than female professionals who compete with one another. The Queen Bee Syndrome refers to the negative views that female bosses have toward their female employees and their attempts to avoid them unconsciously. We created this investigation as an exploratory study to investigate the unconscious mechanisms underlying the Queen Bee Syndrome. Nine distinct women who work under female bosses were interviewed by us. In fact, our agenda included investigating how and why these prejudgments arise, as well as determining whether the individual working in a subordinate role is truly a victim of the Queen Bee Syndrome or whether prejudice and negative attitudes toward women are a two-way street. Our research has shown that the unfavorable views associated with the Queen Bee Syndrome, which is thought to be applied top-down, are, in fact, bidirectional, and that subordinates can harbour prejudices against their female superiors as well. This phenomenon is known as the Worker Bee Syndrome.
Keywords: female leaders, Queen bee syndrome, Prejudge, Unconcious Workplace hostility, Unconcious Thinking Theory
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Baykal and Surucu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elif Baykal, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Türkiye
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