The phenomenon of women discriminating against other women in the workplace — especially as they age — has long been documented as the "queen bee syndrome." As women have increased their ranks in the workplace, most will admit to experiencing rude behavior and rudeness. Who is to blame for dishing out these slightly deviant behaviors? Has the syndrome grown more? The researchers are trying to answer this question in three studies. Full-time salaried men and women answered questions about the unfriendliness they experienced at work in the past month. The questions were about employees who put them down or were condescending, made humiliating or derogatory comments, ignored them in a meeting, or treated them unprofessionally. Each set of questions was answered twice, once for male colleagues and once for female colleagues.
Across all three studies, consistent evidence was found that women reported higher levels of rudeness from other women than their male counterparts. In other words, women are more rude to each other than to men, or men to women. The study also found that women who defied gender norms by being more assertive and dominant at work were targeted more by their female counterparts, compared with women who exhibited fewer of those traits.
The researchers also found that when men acted assertively and warmly — in general, not considered the norm for male behavior — they reported less displeasure from their male counterparts. This suggests that men receive social credit for deviating in part from their gender stereotypes, an advantage that women do not get.
