When Women Become Gatekeepers: The Hidden Challenge Within Women’s Empowerment

By Dr. Fariha Gul

Author, consultant, academician and researcher

Every year International Women’s Day brings powerful conversations about gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the barriers women face in professional and social spaces. Much of this discussion rightly focuses on structural inequalities. However, there is another complex and often uncomfortable dimension that deserves honest reflection, the role some women play in reinforcing barriers for other women.

This is not a popular conversation, but it is a necessary one.

The Invisible Barrier:

Women Policing Women

In many workplaces, a subtle dynamic exists where women sometimes become the strictest evaluators of other women. Female colleagues may question the competence, leadership, or credibility of other women more harshly than they do their male counterparts. Opportunities may be withheld, mentorship may be limited, and support may be conditional.

Instead of creating networks of solidarity, professional spaces can sometimes become arenas where women feel compelled to compete with one another for limited acceptance or visibility.

This phenomenon is often explained through concepts such as the “Queen Bee Syndrome” a situation where women in positions of authority distance themselves from other women and avoid supporting their advancement. Another related pattern is the “pick-me” behavior, where individuals seek validation by aligning themselves with dominant power structures while subtly undermining other women.

While the labels may sound informal, the consequences are very real.

Internalized Misogyny: A System Reproducing Itself

At the root of these behaviors is often internalized misogyny, the unconscious absorption of societal narratives that undervalue women’s abilities. For generations, women have been told that leadership, authority, and intellectual strength are masculine domains. Even as societies evolve, these narratives often remain embedded in professional cultures.

As a result, some women may unconsciously adopt these beliefs and begin to apply them to other women.

This can manifest in several ways:

• Holding women to higher performance standards than men

• Questioning women’s competence or leadership capability more frequently

• Viewing other women as competitors rather than collaborators

• Limiting mentorship or professional sponsorship

When this happens, the glass ceiling does not disappear, it multiplies and thickens.

The Cost to Women’s Growth

The impact of such behavior is far-reaching.

First, it creates environments where talented women feel isolated rather than supported. Instead of finding mentors and allies, they encounter skepticism and resistance.

Second, it discourages collaboration among women, weakening the professional networks that are essential for career advancement.

Third, it damages the broader project of women’s empowerment. When women in positions of influence restrict opportunities rather than expand them, progress slows for everyone.

Perhaps the most painful consequence is psychological. Many capable women begin to doubt their abilities not because of structural barriers alone, but because of social rejection from within their own gender group.

Financial Independence Without Collective Empowerment

Over the last few decades, women’s participation in education and the workforce has grown significantly. Financial independence has been celebrated as a major milestone in women’s empowerment.

But financial freedom alone does not guarantee collective progress.

True empowerment occurs when economic independence translates into agency, mentorship, and opportunity-building for others. If financial success only elevates individuals without transforming the environment for other women, the broader goals of empowerment remain incomplete.

Women who gain access to leadership, resources, and influence have a unique opportunity: they can either reproduce existing hierarchies, or reshape them.

From Gatekeeping to Bridge Building

The future of women’s empowerment depends not only on breaking structural barriers but also on transforming interpersonal dynamics among women themselves.

Women in positions of influence can play a transformative role by:

• Mentoring younger women entering their fields

• Creating professional networks that foster collaboration rather than competition

• Advocating for fair evaluation and opportunities

• Recognizing and challenging internalized biases

Leadership becomes meaningful when it opens doors for others, not when it quietly closes them.

A Different Vision of Women’s Leadership

Perhaps the real measure of women’s empowerment is not how many women reach positions of power, but how they use that power once they get there.

• Do they become gatekeepers protecting limited space?

• Or do they become architects of wider pathways for other women?

The strength of women’s leadership will ultimately be defined not by individual success stories, but by collective progress.

Because empowerment, in its truest sense, is not a solitary achievement.

It is a transformation that lifts many voices, many careers, and many futures at once.