January 9, 2022
The gist:
The term girlboss “was popularised (sic) in 2014 by American businesswoman Sophia Amoruso, the founder of Nasty Gal, after she wrote a memoir titled #Girlboss. And the phenomenon is best described by the self-proclaimed girlboss herself:
“A #girlboss is someone who’s in charge of her own life,” she writes in her book. “You know where you’re going, but can’t do it without having some fun along the way … You take your life seriously, but you don’t take yourself too seriously. You’re going to take over the world and change it in the process.”
She is expected to be a “cool boss, but she’s capable of getting things done. She’s driven by ambition and purpose, but she’s not full of herself. She’s a creative genius, but she’s also a true leader of the people, one who’s empathetic and caring in a way most bosses aren’t. She’s practically the liberator of those who has been caught in the toils of capitalism.”
But with the resignation of prominent girlbosses—including Amoruso—we find they and their companies can be “rife with the same problems that plague several male-led workplaces.”
”What ultimately needs to change,” says the article’s author, Gopika Nair, is the patronisation (sic) of women just for being a woman.”
Vilifying women leaders takes away from the message that our leadership + diverse leadership is vital to the future in all aspects of society + detracts from its game-changing qualities.
Read more here.
