Revisiting the Queen Bee Phenomenon: Understanding Self–Group Distancing in Women and Other Groups as Strategic Compliance Within Unequal Systems

The Queen Bee phenomenon (QBP), whereby senior women in male-dominated contexts distance themselves from junior women, align with masculine norms, and downplay gender inequality, has sparked considerable debate. This contribution reviews evidence for the QBP and argues that it reflects a way of coping with gendered organizational contexts and constrained advancement opportunities that elicit social identity threat and related motives. This contribution provides a multilevel synthesis of the consequences of QBP for individuals, their colleagues, marginalized groups, and organizations. The QBP is conceptualized as a socially embedded, context-dependent, self-reinforcing feedback loop: coping responses that may yield short-term individual benefits but undermine solidarity, legitimize inequality, and reduce pressure for structural change. Integrating insights from psychology, organizational behavior, sociology, and critical diversity research, the QBP is situated alongside related coping strategies, including code-switching, identity bifurcation, and assimilation. These dynamics point to the importance of fixing systems rather than individuals, highlighting implications for research and organizational change.