Abstract:
This study explores the motivations of women leaders who express reluctancy to promote other women in the
workplace in Zimbabwe. This study is motivated by the realisation that, though contemporary literature
advocates that women are underrepresented in leadership positions, there seems to exist a culture that reflect
that the few women in leadership positions (Queen Bees) inhibit the ascension of fellow women into lucrative
leadership positions. This study zeroed on the case study approach with 20 judgementally sampled female
leaders in the Zimbabwean banking sector. Semi-structured interview was employed to collect data. Thematic
analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings from the study revealed major themes of competition where
female leaders admitted to refusing to elevate other women because they fear competition from them hence
they remove any type of value threats from subordinates; their leadership style is mainly autocratic towards their
female subordinates than their male subordinates and lastly theme being systematic discrimination when it
comes to promotion, recruitment, employment and remuneration of female employees in the banking sector.
However, Queen Bees prefer working with males at the top than females who lack the right attitude towards
their work. It was recommended that further researches to be done on strategies to address negative Queen
Bees effects in organisations to guarantee the career advancement of junior women in the banking sector.
