Girl Power? Not at the office.

As female Millennials we grew up idolizing the Spice Girls, where everything was all about the empowerment of females through music. This wave of “feminism” created a self-reliant attitude among young women of the 1990’s that manifested ambition and individualism.

As millennials entering the corporate world we may find the girl power and peace signs no longer apply when dealing with our same gender bosses. As Meredith Vieira said this morning on the Today Show, “If you have lofty career goals you may not want a woman as your boss.” Recent studies have shown that twice as many men and women prefer male bosses to those that prefer female bosses. This insight even has its own term: The Queen Bee Syndrome.

“The Queen Bee boss is the alpha female who tries to preserve her power at all costs,” says Today Show contributor, Dr. Robi Ludwig. “Instead of promoting her younger counterparts, she feels threatened by them, judges them, talks about them and, in many cases, ends up obstructing their attempts to climb the corporate ladder.”

Many women involved in these studies have found that their female employers have a lack of trust and because these women have fought to get to their top ranking positions are hyper-competitive with their younger counter parts. If this situation becomes your reality it is important to consider if you can continue working for this female and to look inside yourself and confirm whether you could be doing more to help your situation. If you still come up with the Queen Bee Syndrome, it may be time for you to move on.

But since we are the newbies entering the workforce, is there anything we can do to overcome the Queen Bee? Strive for success. As more women enter the corporate world, more will expand to take on management roles. This will help to reverse the competitive spirit allowing female bosses to find their own confidence in the man’s world they have worked so hard to overcome. “They'll even become the nurturing, supportive bosses that social theorists always believed they could be,” says Dr. Robi Ludwig.