Queen bee syndrome

Queen bee syndrome was first defined by G.L. Staines, T.E. Jayaratne, and C. Tavris in 1973. It describes a woman in a position of authority who views or treats subordinates more critically if they are female. In recent years, research has shown that adolescent girls form (often small) groups called cliques, which are often created based on a shared characteristic or quality of the members such as attractiveness or popularity. Association with such a group is often wanted by those who are part of the larger, all encompassing group, such as a class or school. It is the association with these groups that brings an individual similar treatment.A popular example of a movie based on girls with queen bee syndrome is the 2004 film, Mean Girls. The authorized biographer of Margaret Thatcher, Charles Moore, stated in an interview his belief that the former British prime minister had herself suffered from the syndrome. However, it is important to bear in mind that cases are not representative and the existence of cases does not suggest that all or most women in power act like queen bees.Recent research has postulated that queen bee syndrome may be a product of certain cultural influences, especially those related to the modern workplace.Recent research, that uses a robust causal identification mechanism (i.e., regression discontinuity design), strongly contests the existence of the queen bee phenomenon; the results of this study suggest that previous research was biased either by eliciting confirming cases (as is often done in qualitative research) or that observational data based on questionnaire measures was biased because of endogeneity issues.