Toxic Femininity in Higher Education: Academia's Sting in the Tail – The Queen Bee

Introduction

Identification of the ‘Queen Bee’ manifestation in organisational hierarchies, where predominantly male focused organisational culture is common are not unusual and have been documented in the published evidence base for decades (Rossi, 1965). Operationally defined, for the purposes of this chapter, the phenomenon refers to the intrinsic attitude and articulated behavioural responses of women who have regularly faced gender-based discrimination and barriers to career progression who as a consequence of this then project similar gender-based discrimination and barriers upon their female counterparts, whether as an unconscious by-product of their own negative experience or as a deliberate intervention to ensure their own perceptible sense of superiority. The impact of this phenomenon is not only negative for fellow women on the receiving end of it, but it also impacts on overall organisational cohesion and can lead to a workplace culture within which discriminatory behaviour and barriers to progression are the social norm and where high rates of female staff turnover are demonstrable (Hussain, 2022). The published literature is filled with exemplars of how women are disadvantaged within the context of organisational hierarchies which are traditionally the preserve of older white men, with a recognisably negative impact on the agency of women and the opportunities afforded to them consequently (Derks, Van Laar & Ellemers, 2016). Whilst these patriarchal patterns perpetuate the myths of discrimination and reinforce workplace cultures which further consolidate negative attitudes, they are not the sole cause of the Queen Bee Phenomenon in practice (Mavin, 2006). The potential for emergence of the Queen Bee Phenomenon is exacerbated when women, who have become immersed in these cultures, as an integral part of having to directly compete with men and allude to the same behaviours, fail to support their female counterparts, and widen the gap in opportunity for progression for other women. If this remains unaddressed at an organisational level, this too becomes an embedded part of organisational culture and the reinforcement of concepts such as the glass ceiling and the whole concept of the ‘Queen Bee’ (Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010). Added to the context of a global crisis such as the global COVID-19 pandemic, the visibility of inequity and inequality becomes even more apparent in the context of Higher Education, which is what this chapter serves to illuminate.

Building And Maintaining The Hive

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has ensured not only that humanity has dealt with a sudden and harsh reminder of its own position relative to the risks man lives with on an everyday basis, but also the opportunities to initiate and manage change that these bring, specifically for women in business (Peters et al, 2020). The existential crisis facing HEIs as a direct consequence of 2020 has served as a lens through which other facets of ambiguity and contingency also influence meta-thinking concerning their strategic governance and operationalisation of policies in practice (Pellegrini et al, 2020). Facing ethical dilemmas, institutional leaders also must grapple with compounding intraneous and extraneous variables which exacerbate the current crisis situations HEIs now face (Rapanta et al, 2020).