{"id":49920,"date":"2025-02-28T14:03:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=49920"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:53:00","slug":"queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Pay a Price for Promoting Other Women"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The Real Reason Behind \u201cQueen Bee Syndrome\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>As women attempt to advance from mid-career leaders into senior and executive positions, plenty of roadblocks stand in their path \u2014 but one of those barriers may come as a surprise: other women.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201cqueen bee syndrome,\u201d a term first coined in 1973, is often referenced during our women\u2019s leadership development programs, where mid-level women mention feeling a lack of support from more senior women.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than blaming senior-level women, our researchers wondered if there was another possible factor at play: <b>Could it be that senior-level women are somehow\u00a0<i>penalized <\/i>for supporting other women leaders?<\/b><\/p>\n<h2>Why Women Don\u2019t Support Other Women: Gender Bias Matters<\/h2>\n<p>Building on our earlier research about <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/bossy-whats-gender-got-to-do-with-it\/\">the gendered use of the term \u201cbossy,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and to better understand the reasons why women don\u2019t support other women, we wanted to see how peers viewed both male and female leaders when they openly valued greater gender diversity in the workplace.<\/p>\n<p>We looked at the results of 360-degree assessment data collected from leaders who attended our leadership development programs, and here\u2019s what we found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Female leaders who show that they value diversity in the workplace receive much lower competency ratings<\/strong> than male leaders who show that they value diversity in the workplace.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Men\u2019s performance ratings actually increase when they show that they value diversity in the workplace,<\/strong> while women\u2019s performance ratings decrease when they show that they value diversity in the workplace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next, our team examined what happens when women actually <i>promote<\/i> other women.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers asked 2 groups of working adults to evaluate the competency of a hiring manager who interviewed candidates for a vacant senior vice president position.<\/p>\n<p>One group was told that the hiring manager chose a white male candidate because he \u201chad the highest scores.\u201d The other group was told that the hiring manager chose a woman because she \u201chad the highest scores and increases the racial and gender balance of our leadership team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As noted in <a href=\"https:\/\/cclinnovation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/queen-bee-syndrome.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our white paper<\/a>, the second part of the study found that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When the hiring manager was a male, his competency ratings weren\u2019t affected by his decision<\/strong> \u2014 the group of working adults gave him the same rating whether or not he was motivated by increasing his leadership team\u2019s racial and gender balance, but<\/li>\n<li><strong>When the hiring manager advocating for diversity was a female, her competency rating dropped dramatically.<\/strong> There seemed to be a perception that when a woman advocated for another woman, she was somehow showing favoritism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our conclusion: <em>This<\/em> could be the real reason that women don&#8217;t promote other women.<\/p>\n<p>And there may be another factor at play as well. In a work environment where men are in the majority, particularly at the top, women must work harder to break in. It\u2019s also possible that once they do, they may feel threatened by other women who could replace them.<\/p>\n<h2>Women Need to Support Women \u2014 and Men Need to Join the Conversation<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, to grow the ranks of women leaders, more women need to support women.<\/p>\n<p>But women aren\u2019t solely responsible. In fact, as our study showed, men stand to gain by advocating for diversity. Strengthening women\u2019s leadership is not about excluding men, and women cannot succeed without men\u2019s support.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"http:\/\/cclinnovation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/overcoming-barriers-womens-leadership-center-for-creative-leadership.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overcoming barriers to women\u2019s leadership<\/a> will take a multi-pronged effort by the entire community \u2014 including governments, the media, businesses, and organizations \u2014 <em>plus <\/em>men and women themselves, to <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/gender-equity-workplace\/\">make gender parity in the workplace a reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is, everyone has a role to play to foster a more equitable workplace.<\/p>\n<h2>Ready to Take the Next Step?<\/h2>\n<p><em><strong>Create a workplace environment where your team doesn\u2019t need to worry about why women don\u2019t support other women, and leaders of all genders support one another. Partner with us for <a href=\"\/leadership-challenges\/womens-leadership-development\/\">customized women\u2019s leadership development<\/a> that meets your organization\u2019s unique needs.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senior-level women are often penalized when they promote their female colleagues. Our researchers uncovered why more women don&#8217;t support other women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":49926,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49920","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-belonging","categories-womens-leadership","region-global","article-type-leading-effectively-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Queen Bees? Why Women Don&#039;t Support Other Women| CCL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senior-level women are often penalized when they promote their female colleagues. Our researchers uncovered why more women don&#039;t support other women.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women Pay a Price for Promoting Other Women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senior-level women are often penalized when they promote their female colleagues. Our researchers uncovered why more women don&#039;t support other women.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CCL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CenterforCreativeLeadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-08T10:53:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/why-women-dont-support-other-women-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CCLdotORG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Queen Bees? Why Women Don't Support Other Women| CCL","description":"Senior-level women are often penalized when they promote their female colleagues. Our researchers uncovered why more women don't support other women.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Women Pay a Price for Promoting Other Women","og_description":"Senior-level women are often penalized when they promote their female colleagues. Our researchers uncovered why more women don't support other women.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/","og_site_name":"CCL","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CenterforCreativeLeadership\/","article_modified_time":"2025-05-08T10:53:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":864,"height":483,"url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/why-women-dont-support-other-women-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@CCLdotORG","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Helton","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c3de2cfff0bc13a548c633bbf60c15ec"},"headline":"Women Pay a Price for Promoting Other Women","datePublished":"2025-02-28T19:03:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-08T10:53:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/"},"wordCount":656,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/why-women-dont-support-other-women-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/","name":"Queen Bees? Why Women Don't Support Other Women| CCL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/why-women-dont-support-other-women-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-28T19:03:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-08T10:53:00+00:00","description":"Senior-level women are often penalized when they promote their female colleagues. Our researchers uncovered why more women don't support other women.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/why-women-dont-support-other-women-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/why-women-dont-support-other-women-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg","width":864,"height":483,"caption":"Women Pay a Price for Promoting Other Women"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/queen-bee-women-pay-a-price-for-not-promoting-other-women\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Articles","item":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"LE Articles","item":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/article-type\/leading-effectively-articles\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Women Pay a Price for Promoting Other Women"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/","name":"CCL","description":"Leadership Development Drives Results. We Can Prove It.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#organization","name":"Center for Creative Leadership","url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/center-for-creative-leadership-ccl-featured-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/center-for-creative-leadership-ccl-featured-logo.jpg","width":864,"height":483,"caption":"Center for Creative Leadership"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CenterforCreativeLeadership\/","https:\/\/x.com\/CCLdotORG","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ccldotorg\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/center-for-creative-leadership\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c3de2cfff0bc13a548c633bbf60c15ec","name":"Carrie Helton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","caption":"Carrie Helton"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/author\/carrie-helton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/49920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/49920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}