Queen bee (sociology)

A queen bee is the leader of a female group, such as a clique. The term has been applied in several social settings.

In a business environment, a "queen bee" may refer to a woman in upper management who advanced in the ranks without the help of any type of affirmative action programs. Many of those executive women tend to be politically conservative and they choose not to publicly identify with feminism. They often see other, usually younger, women as competitors and will refuse to help them advance within a company, preferring to mentor a male over a female employee. Some such "queen bees" may actively take steps to hinder another woman's advancement as they are seen as direct competitors. Such tactics are sometimes referred to as heterophily (in the sense of positive preference and favoritism for opposite-sex colleagues) or the queen bee syndrome.

The term "loophole woman", coined by Caroline Bird in her book Born Female: The High Cost of Keeping Women Down (1968), has a similar meaning. Marie Mullaney defines the loophole woman as one who, "successful in a predominantly male field like law, business or medicine, is opposed to other women's attaining similar levels of success. Such success, if attained by women on a large scale, would detract from, if not substantially reduce, her own status and importance." (The term "honorary male" is related, but does not imply opposition to other women's success.)

A queen bee in a school setting is sometimes referred to as a school diva or school princess. These queen bees are often stereotyped in media as being beautiful, charismatic, manipulative, and wealthy, holding positions of high social status, such as being head cheerleader (or being the captain of some other, usually an all-girl, sports team), the Homecoming or Prom Queen (or both), or even being the daughter of the principal or a teacher (usually the principal). The phenomenon of queen bees is common in finishing schools.

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