How Power and Discretion Attenuate the Queen Bee Phenomenon in Top Management Teams

The Queen Bee (QB) phenomenon posits that senior women in male dominated work contexts (e.g., top management teams) strive for success by distancing themselves from junior female colleagues. This psychological distancing is theorized to be a response to longstanding gender discrimination. However, findings that have tested this phenomenon are mixed. We suggest that this may be due to institutional constraints, rather than female CEO preferences. We posit that female CEOs will have a higher representation of women on their TMT, and thus avoid the QB phenomenon, when not constrained by organizational factors. We find that female CEO presence does negatively relate to TMT female representation (as QB literature suggests), but that this relationship is weakened by CEO power, lack of board vigilance, and CEO confidence.