‘Queen Bee’ stereotype in the workplace is a rarity

TODAY:

Jing Wang Herman has plenty of experience as the lone female in the office. Currently the CEO for the USA operations of GetTaxi.com, Wang Herman previously racked up eight years on Wall Street, landed on a Forbes 30 Under 30 list – and earned her taxi driver’s license.

“I’m always in male-dominated environments. I don’t even realize it anymore,” she said.

As she climbed the corporate ladder, her mentors have been men, a fact of little consequence, said Wang Herman, whose tech company makes an app to hail and pay taxis. “To me, mentoring is gender neutral.”

Some might wonder if she’s a Queen Bee, a powerful, conniving woman who undermines competing females.

The answer is no, according to the co-authors of the 1974 study that coined the term “Queen Bee,” which they said has mutated into an outdated, sexist and negative stereotype.

…

The Wall Street Journal was the latest publication to misuse the Queen Bee term, the researchers said. “I was really surprised and frankly kind of appalled by it,” said Carol Tavris, a social psychologist who was a co-author of the original study for Psychology Today with Graham Staines and Toby Jayaratne.

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