Harriet Minter
PHOTOGRAPH: mark HARRISON. HAIR AND MAKE-UP: CAROLINE PIASECKI. STYLIST: KATE ANYA BARBOUR
Researchers in the 1970s found that when a woman was promoted to board level in a business, the number of women in senior roles in that firm either dropped or stayed the same. Rather than encouraging other women, it seemed high-achieving women were determined to hang onto their special status as ‘the only woman’ and would do anything to protect it. Researchers dubbed them ‘queen bees’ – the only woman in the hive – and ‘queen bee syndrome’ was born.