Queen bee syndrome was first defined by G.L. Staines, T.E. Jayaratne, and C. Tavris in 1973. It describes a woman in a position of authority who views or treats subordinates more critically if they are female. This phenomenon has been documented by several studies. Scientists from the University of Toronto speculated that the queen bee syndrome may be the reason that women find it more stressful to work for women managers; no difference was found in stress levels for male workers.

蜂王综合征（queen bee syndrome）一词最初由斯泰恩斯、贾亚拉特纳和塔佛瑞斯在1973年定义，指处于领导地位的女性对女下属更为严苛。这种现象在多个研究中均有记载。多伦多大学的科学家猜测，蜂王综合征可能是女员工在女领导手下工作压力更大的原因，而男员工的压力水平则未见因领导性别不同而有变化。

Recent research has postulated that queen bee syndrome may be a product of certain cultural influences, especially those related to the modern workplace. Although significant steps have been made towards gender equality in most modern workplaces, research shows that, on average, women are still paid less than and achieve fewer promotions than their male counterparts. Based on these statistics, researchers have hypothesized that queen bee syndrome may be developed by women who have achieved high workplace positions within their respective fields as a way to defend against any gender bias found in their cultures. By opposing any attempts of subordinates of their own sex to advance in career paths, women with queen bee syndrome hope to fit in with their male counterparts by adhering to the cultural stigmas placed on gender in the workplace. (Source: Wikipedia)

近期已有研究假设蜂王综合征可能是某些文化影响的产物，尤其在现代职场中。虽然现代职场已在性别平等方面有了很明显的进步，不过有研究发现，平均来说，女性的收入和获得升职的机会仍少于男性。在这些数据的基础上，研究人员猜测，蜂王综合征可能是在各自领域取得较高职场地位的女性用以抵抗她们所处文化中任何形式性别歧视的武器。患有蜂王综合征的女性通过阻止同性下属升迁这样的职场文化恶习来使自己更好地融入同一级别的男同事当中。