The term ‘girlboss’ gathered fame in 2015 when the then-owner of the fastest-growing fashion brand NastyGal wrote an autobiography, titled #Girlboss, which explored her personal story of rising to fame and spearheading a thriving company. Initially, the term was launched with positive intentions — to celebrate the success of women in business. But over time, it turned into a redundant and offensive term.
What all is wrong with being called a #GirlBoss? Why is there a need to associate a gender with a professional role? Why do we need to specify who the boss is, boy or girl? How does it matter?
The basic criterion of becoming a leader never stemmed from one’s gender. A boss is a leader who’ll lead by example, wit, intelligence, commitment, honesty, empathy, and a tonne of other emotions not confined to a gender.
When we use the term girlboss, we automatically put women in a treasure chest whose discovery is a miracle, and then we expect everyone to celebrate it as though a girlboss is some unusual feat, somewhat like a shooting star we might see whizzing past the sky once in a blue moon.
Women in leadership roles are not unusual, they never have been. They have been carrying the weight of a thousand generations on their backs for centuries. From rearing generations, leading political discourse, teaching the greatest minds, and being presidents and prime ministers, women have occupied important positions throughout history. They have been entrepreneurs and daily wagers.
When we use the term girlboss, we automatically put women in a treasure chest whose discovery is a miracle, and then we expect everyone to celebrate it as though a girlboss is some unusual feat, somewhat like a shooting star we might see whizzing past the sky once in a blue moon.
Kristen Syrett, a professor from Rutgers University, aptly explains in Why Female Entrepreneurs Welcome The End Of The Girlboss Era—Once And For All: “It’s reminding everyone that there is a style of being a boss. And no matter how hard you work, you’re still a girl — you’re a girl in a man’s world.”
Funnily enough, often girlbosses we celebrate are women, not girls, which is another reason for getting rid of this redundant label. I believe it is pointless to celebrate empowered women by ascribing a pretty and endearing prefix before their accomplishments which highlight their gender and for no apparent reason. In an effort to realise women’s legitimate powers as boss, terms like girlboss only try to make the blow softer. These jargons try and make a woman’s power easily palatable. They are not meant to empower; these are mere words used in a man’s world to make them feel better about some power sharing.
Women are just as human as men. They have achieved everything that men have and often a lot more too. So, we don’t need a redundant term like girlboss which emphasizes on the idea of a boss being a girl, similar to how we don’t need to be reminded of a boy boss. Let a boss be a boss, no gender restraints associated, no holds barred.
As we move into a world, it is high time we disassociate from eons-old gender-based norms and encourage gender-neutral terms and correspondence in everyday routines.
The author is a student currently enrolled in Bachelors of Environmental Sciences, with a passion for writing, reading, and exploring new ideas through different art forms.
