Queen Bee phenomenon scale: Psychometric evidence in the Brazilian context

Abstract

This study aimed to develop an instrument to measure the queen bee phenomenon, present in women in positions of command who hinder the professional development of other women. In this article, the phenomenon is understood as a response to the social threat experienced by women who aspire to high positions in men’s organizations. The sample, of 495 women who worked in higher education institutions, was divided into two groups: Group 1 (G1; 248, MAge =44 years old) and Group 2 (G2; 247, MAge = 42 years old). These individuals answered the Queen Bee Phenomenon Scale (QBPS) and demographic questions. Considering the G1 participants, a principal component analysis was performed, which allowed the identification of a hexafactorial structure, explaining 60.5% of the total variance and presenting an overall internal consistency of 0.72. Subsequently, for the G2 participants, the adequacy of the QBPS hexafactorial structure was confirmed (CFI = 0.935, TLI = 0.923, and RMSEA = 0.049). It was concluded that there is evidence for both the validity of the factors and the internal consistency of the measure, which thus may be properly used in other studies.

Keywords

• queen bee phenomenon
• gender
• leadership
• scale