Women’s impact on women’s careers in management: Queen Bees, female misogyny, negative intra-relations and solidarity behaviours

This chapter focuses on the contradictions which undermine solidarity behaviour between women in organizations, it critiques the perpetuation of the senior woman as queen bee (Abramson, 1975; Staines et al., 1973) and progresses research into the concept of female misogyny (Mavin,2006a) and women’s negative intra-relations(Mavin and Williams, 2011)within the context of senior women’s career positioning. Research into female misogyny and women’s negative intra-relations offers alternative understandings as to why senior women in organizations are blamed for not supporting other women in their careers and why senior women are often perceived as ‘too male’ and/or the wrong type of career role models for other women. The argument here is that as senior women attempt to navigate the complexities of being both women and managers in the gendered context of senior management, they face misogyny, including female misogyny, and negative evaluations from men and other women in management.