TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– Aims to critique solidarity behaviour as a means of advancing women in management; questions the queen bee concept and raises negative relations between women.Design/methodology/approach– Conceptual paper which critiques extant research and approaches to advancing women in management identifying alternative perspectives.Findings– Assumptions of solidarity behaviour set expectations of senior women which cannot be fulfilled. Continued use of the unproblematized queen bee label, without acknowledgement of the embedded gendered context for women in senior management, perpetuates a “blame the woman” perspective as a “one‐woman responsibility”. Emerging from the gendered nature of organization, female misogyny may be a means of exploring negative relations between women to challenge existing gendered organizations which sustain the status quo.Research limitations/implications– Mediates recommendations of senior women as mentors and role models, whilst blaming them for being more male than men, by calling for action to challenge and change the gendered social order which impacts on women in management. Empirical research is required.Originality/value– Considers the impact of negative relations between women to highlight how the gendered social order encourages and exacerbates differences between women; challenges assumptions of solidarity behaviour and problematizes the queen bee label.
VL  - 21
IS  - 4
SN  - 0964-9425
DO  - 10.1108/09649420610666579
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420610666579
AU  - Mavin Sharon
PY  - 2006
Y1  - 2006/01/01
TI  - Venus envy: problematizing solidarity behaviour and queen bees
T2  - Women in Management Review
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 264
EP  - 276
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -