By:
Mohammad Shaheer
Aeman Junaid
Shiza Sabir Alam
Scarcity of leadership roles, “Queen Bee” dynamics, and workplace cliques reveal deeper HR challenges
In offices everywhere, there is a subtle but chronic tension between women who, by all rights, should be natural allies. Even after decades of advancements toward equality in the workplace, many women remain not cooperating with each other, but competing subtly at times, openly at others for attention, for power, and for promotion.
This conflict, though seldom talked about, is not an issue of personal animosity. Instead, it reveals deep, structural issues in workplaces that Human Resources (HR) departments can no longer ignore. As women continue to make important advances toward leadership, recognizing and resolving the underlying causes of these invisible wars is important not just for gender equity but for building healthier, more productive organizations.
The Scarcity Mindset: Fighting for a Few Seats at the Table
At the root of much conflict in the workplace among women is the sense of scarcity: the idea that opportunities for advancement are limited and scarce. In many fields still dominated by men at the top, women tend to internalize a sense of competition for a limited number of leadership roles. This scarcity mentality sometimes referred to as “competitive scarcity” promotes rivalry rather than collaboration.
Rather than regarding each other as allies, women might unwittingly regard their colleagues as rivals vying for scarce and coveted seats at the leadership table. Since Catalyst, a nonprofit organization dedicated to women in the workplace, indicates that women now occupy only slightly more than 29% of senior management positions worldwide, women are far outnumbered by men. In such male-dominated arenas as tech, finance, and engineering, that figure is even lower.
“If we want women to lift up each other, companies need to first break down the systems that pit them against each other,” states Dr. Elaine Walters, an organizational psychologist with a specialization in workplace inclusion. “You can’t expect collaboration when the culture rewards competition.”
The Queen Bee Phenomenon: When Success Breeds Isolation
Another covert but potent threat to women’s solidarity is the Queen Bee phenomenon a phrase originally used in the 1970s but also apt today. This dynamic refers to veteran women who, instead of supporting younger female peers, become distant or even serve as gatekeepers.
More often than not, Queen Bees are women who have struggled to reach corporate heights through adversity, having survived isolation, prejudice, and structural inequality. Having battled to achieve their position, some might regard the emergence of younger women as not progress, but intrusion on their own status. Rather than mentoring, they will sabotage or overlook talent emerging.
For businesses, the phenomenon identifies an urgent call to leadership development centered on inclusive, compassionate management. Organizations need to educate leaders irrespective of gender not just to guide, but to elevate. Sponsorship schemes, where higher-level women advocate on behalf of high-potential junior counterparts, can serve as a strong corrective.
Workplace Cliques: Support or Sabotage?
Social ties in the workplace are a double-edged sword. While informal networks and friendships can provide team cohesiveness and emotional support, they can also develop into cliques that leave out others. Cliques have the tendency to impact key workplace dynamics, from lunchroom gossip to project assignments and promotions.
Women who are excluded from these groups tend to have lower psychological safety, increased stress levels, and decreased job satisfaction. The damage can be especially ferocious in hybrid or remote work environments, where informal communication is most likely to decide who stays “in the loop.”
“Healthy teams do not just happen organically,” says HR consultant Meera Shah. “They require purposeful development, clear communication protocols, and a measure of success as a team.” Companies that prioritize team building and cross-functional collaboration can help to break down these informal barriers.
Communication Styles: Bridging the Gap
All conflicts in the workplace are not competition or exclusionary. They happen sometimes just by virtue of varying communication styles. Some women have a style where they start from assertiveness and direct feedback, while others might prefer using diplomacy and consensus. Unmindfully, these become interpreted as assertiveness which turns out to be misinterpreted aggression or diplomacy as being indecisive.
Communication workshops, emotional intelligence training, and conflict resolution models can help teams work through these differences in a positive manner. By valuing different communication styles, workplaces create environments in which women can lead naturally, rather than attempting to fit into a one-size-fits-all leadership matrix.
A Call to Action for HR Leaders
The battles between women in the workplace aren’t personal soap operas they’re usually symptoms of more profound, systemic problems. HR leaders can play a key role in shattering these patterns and establishing new norms for equity and cooperation. Successful strategies include:
•Clear Career Paths: Objective, clear promotion and leadership opportunity criteria minimize perceptions of favoritism or scarcity.
•Mentorship and Sponsorship Programs: Matching senior women with junior colleagues assists in developing cross-level trust and cultivating future talent.
•Inclusive Culture Initiatives: Employee resource groups (ERGs), routine equity audits, and leadership responsibility are crucial.
• Bias Mitigation: Right from hiring to performance assessments, HR has to actively fight unconscious bias with training and data-driven monitoring.
The Bottom Line
When women hold each other’s hands, organizations perform. Organizations with more gender diversity are 15% to 35% more likely to outperform other companies on financials, according to a McKinsey report. But such solidarity cannot be taken for granted.
Business leaders need to acknowledge that two of the most destructive fights at work occur not between genders, but within them. By facing the cultural and structural causes of these fights, businesses can construct workplaces where women don’t only survive, but thrive together.
As leadership guru Carla Harris has said, “We cannot be what we cannot see and we cannot lead if we do not lift.”
