AUGUST 25, 2000
COMMENTARY BY CAROL GALLAGHER
Why Do "Queen Bees" Sting Other Rising Women | The founder of the Executive Women's Alliance says some top female execs still fiercely guard their turf
| Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz once told me about meeting another female CEO of a large corporation at one of President Bill Clinton's Economic Summits. She approached the woman, introduced herself, and said, "I've heard a lot about you." Her friendly overture was met with coldness. Bartz notes: "It felt like the other woman tossed me a piece of bread and said, 'Get lost!'"
Bartz had just been stung by a queen bee -- a woman who has reached the executive level and tries to exclude other women from achieving the same status. In researching Going to the Top, my new book about high-ranking women's successful advancement strategies, I asked other female professionals if they, too, had encountered queen bees. From their responses, I have concluded that although the queen bee still buzzes, she's a dying breed. At one time, when only one woman made it into executive circles, she was able to control who came close to power. Now, however, as more women advance into senior management, it's harder for a queen bee to dominate.
"NO ROOM". Some prominent women venture theories about why queen bees arise. Several believe that they grow out of competitiveness. If a woman has worked hard to become an executive and is often her company's first female at such a lofty level, she may feel threatened by another's presence. Karen O'Shea, Lennox Industries' vice-president for communications, traces this attitude back to childhood. "It always boils down to that little girl thing of 'I want to be the center of attention. I want to be the A+ girl. I want to do the erasers. I want to be the beauty queen,'" she says. "There's no room for anyone else."
Queen bees may also suffer from insecurity. "Some senior women say: 'It's O.K. if I'm the most senior woman and nobody else is. Then I can be helpful to women at lower levels.' But when [other women are] senior, too -- watch out," says Karen Wegmann, executive vice-president at Wells Fargo Bank. Wegmann also talks about specific instances when women were promoted but then seemed to turn into witches overnight: "They became power-hungry, with smoke coming out of their ears." She adds in exasperation: "I just want to smack them and say, 'What happened to those talented team players that I so wanted to get promoted?' Maybe women behave in this way because it's so hard to get there."
Sometimes there's a more prosaic explanation for the phenomenon: Some women in top positions work under a great deal of pressure and may seem to become angry at the least provocation. For instance, talent retention is a pressing issue in most companies these days. If a woman exec has too few employees to support her projects and must work 80-hour weeks, it's easy to see how she could burn out and snap at those below her. People unfamiliar with her situation may view her behavior as aggressive. It is indeed lonely at the top.
However, in my experience through the Executive Women's Alliance conferences that I host annually, when high-ranking women share the critical issues they're facing, they realize that they're not alone. The problems lose some of their intensity as the women see how others are resolving them. And once they start to talk to one another, the women immediately and visibly begin to relax.
MORE WELCOMING. The good news is that more and more professional women now see each other as allies, not enemies. Many female execs understand the need to nurture strong relationships with their co-workers and speak of their commitment to fostering other women's careers.
One senior executive expresses this inclusive attitude: "Typically, I feel more comfortable dealing with women on a professional level than with men.... I have things in common with them -- a lot of shared experience and perspective. And each of us at this level is kind of unusual. It's just fun to connect."
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Carol Gallagher is the author with Susan K. Golant of Going to the Top: A Road Map for Success from America's Leading Women Executives (Viking, 2000). She is also founder of the Executive Women's Alliance and a senior principal at American Management Systems, an international management consulting firm.
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Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P.
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