Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1323 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.
Preamble
This blogpost is based on key insights from an INSEAD article by Henrike Gueth, Nicolas Bastoli, and Winnie Jiang. Link at the end.
Queen Bee Syndrome: When Women Hold Other Women Back at Work
There is an uncomfortable phenomenon in organizations. Some women who have successfully reached senior positions may become less supportive of other women trying to advance. They may be reluctant to mentor younger women, exclude them from influential networks, judge them more harshly, or become highly competitive with them. This behavior is commonly described as “Queen Bee Syndrome.”
The term, however, can be misleading. It suggests that women themselves are responsible for holding other women back. Recent research discussed by INSEAD presents a more nuanced explanation. Queen Bee behavior can emerge when women operate in male-dominated organizations where senior positions are scarce, gender stereotypes are strong, and women feel intense pressure to prove that they belong. This distinction matters.
The issue is not simply that some senior women fail to support other women. The deeper issue is an organizational environment in which another woman’s success can be perceived as a threat. The real problem is not women; it is the organizational environment that makes leadership feel scarce.
When Leadership Becomes a Scarce Resource
Imagine an organization with ten senior executives, only one of whom is a woman. That woman is highly visible. Her successes and failures may be interpreted as evidence about women in leadership generally. If she succeeds, she may feel pressure to demonstrate that she is exceptional. If she fails, her failure may reinforce stereotypes about women’s leadership capability. This is a classic example of tokenism.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s research showed how being one of very few members of a particular group can increase visibility, pressure and performance expectations. Under these conditions, another talented woman may not automatically be perceived as an ally. She may be perceived as a competitor for the organization’s one or two available seats. Scarcity creates competition.
Why Queen Bee Behavior Can Develop
INSEAD’s analysis points to two forms of threat.
The first is competitive threat. A highly capable junior woman may be seen as someone who could eventually compete for the same position. The second is collective threat. A woman who is perceived as underperforming may be seen as potentially reinforcing negative stereotypes about women generally. This can produce seemingly contradictory behavior. A senior woman may be particularly demanding of junior women because she believes they must meet exceptionally high standards. Sometimes such judgments are entirely justified. The problem arises when women are held to standards that are different from those applied to men.
The solution is not to lower standards. It is to make standards consistent, transparent and evidence-based.
The Burden of Personal Sacrifice
Many women who reach senior leadership have made substantial personal sacrifices.
They may have worked exceptionally long hours, accepted difficult assignments, delayed family decisions, or succeeded in environments where they were the only woman in the room. This can create another psychological barrier.
When younger women receive greater flexibility or support, a senior woman may think: “Why should she have an easier path than I did?” But organizational progress does not require the next generation to repeat the difficulties of the previous generation. If flexible work, parental support or better career policies make leadership more accessible, that is progress. The goal should be to remove unnecessary obstacles, not preserve them because previous leaders had to endure them.
The Pharmaceutical Industry Is Not Immune
The issue has particular relevance to pharmaceutical companies. Women are well represented in many pharma functions, including medical affairs, regulatory affairs, quality, pharmacovigilance, HR, research and commercial roles. Yet representation often declines at the highest levels of leadership. This creates a familiar pattern: a strong female pipeline at entry and middle-management levels, followed by a significant drop at country leadership, business-unit and C-suite levels. When only one or two women occupy senior positions, scarcity dynamics become more likely. The organization may unintentionally create competition for a very limited number of leadership seats.
The solution is not simply to appoint one woman to the executive committee. It is to build a sustainable pipeline of women leaders.
Mentoring Is Not Enough
One of the most important distinctions in the INSEAD research is between mentoring and sponsorship.
A mentor provides advice, perspective and encouragement. A sponsor uses influence to create opportunities. The distinction is crucial.
A talented female manager may receive excellent mentoring but still be overlooked for the assignments that determine career progression. High-profile projects, international assignments, turnaround responsibilities, major customers and strategic initiatives create visibility and credibility. Without access to such opportunities, advice alone rarely changes the trajectory of a career. Senior executives therefore need to move beyond mentoring and actively sponsor emerging female leaders.
Stop Defining Leadership Too Narrowly
Another problem is the way organizations define leadership.
Leadership is still frequently associated with aggression, toughness, assertiveness and competitiveness. Women displaying these characteristics may be judged negatively. Women displaying more collaborative behaviors may be perceived as insufficiently strong.
The result is a difficult double standard. Women are expected to be strong, but not intimidating; ambitious, but not overly aggressive; collaborative, but not weak. Organizations need a broader definition of effective leadership. Collaboration, empathy, listening, relationship-building and developing others are not feminine substitutes for “real” leadership. They are valuable leadership capabilities.
Critical Mass Changes the Dynamic
One woman in a senior leadership team can easily become a token. Several women create a different dynamic.
INSEAD highlights research suggesting that when women reach a meaningful proportion of a leadership group, they are less likely to feel isolated and better positioned to build alliances. This is the idea of critical mass.
The practical implication is important. Companies should not measure gender diversity only by asking whether a woman is represented at the top. They should examine the entire leadership pipeline. The objective is not one successful woman. It is a sustainable leadership pipeline.
Make Sponsorship Part of Leadership Accountability
Organizations often say that leaders should develop people. But unless this expectation is measured, it can remain an aspiration.
Leadership performance should include responsibility for developing future leaders. This changes talent development from a personal favor into a management responsibility. It also creates a powerful message: A leader’s legacy is not only what the leader achieves personally, but also the leaders they develop.
Senior Women Have an Important Role
Structural change is essential, but individual leadership still matters.
A senior woman who notices herself becoming unusually critical of another woman can pause and examine the reason. Is the criticism genuinely about performance? Would the same standard be applied to a male colleague? Could the younger woman’s success strengthen the organization rather than threaten the senior woman’s position? This kind of self-awareness can interrupt unconscious competitive behavior.
A senior woman can choose to become a leadership multiplier rather than a gatekeeper.
Sum Up
The most constructive insight from the INSEAD research is that Queen Bee behavior is not necessarily a fixed characteristic. It can be a response to organizational conditions. Change the conditions and the behavior can change.
When women no longer feel that they are competing for one symbolic seat at the table, they can become advocates for other women rather than gatekeepers. That is a fundamental shift.
The real challenge is therefore not to eliminate the “Queen Bee.” It is to build an organization in which there are enough opportunities, transparent pathways and supportive leadership structures that no one needs to behave like one.
Concluded.
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Reference:
https://knowledge.insead.edu/career/queen-bee-syndrome-workplace-dynamic-holding-women-back