Ten years ago a term took the internet by storm, in a very different era than today: GIRLBOSS.
The phrase was coined by Sophia Amoruso, then the creator of Nasty Gal. The brand started with a brilliant idea to resell pieces found in Ebay auctions, soon conquering the fashion market, bestseller lists with its #GIRLBOSS book and then a Netflix series.
The GIRLBOSS ideal was something like a Charismatic, self-started, white millennial girl, bold, empowered, connected (probably from her parents lol) and… implied that everyone could, if they just wanted to *lol*.
I remember from the heyday of the series, chaos and possibly cancellation soon followed, at a time when cancellations were still few and far between. Retrieving my post from 2017 when the series aired, “9 Reasons to Ask and 1 to Watch Girlboss”, I reproduce here 3 points that sum up this GIRLBOSS era and perhaps why the phrase fell into disuse.
And why am I talking about GIRLBOSS years later? It’s just that I recently came across an article talking about its decline and realized that I wasn’t aware of how the term was completely dropped.
The Fast Company article highlighted the “loss” of the term and how entrepreneurs “off the radar”without necessarily social networks or digital archetypes, it was becoming more noticeable – it is better.
The article begins precisely by saying that famous boss girl of the last decade were losing ground and leaving their empires, either after controversies or bankruptcies. The last of them – and perhaps more prominent – it was exactly Emily Weiss. From Teen Vogue’s favorite intern (Anyone who’s seen The Hills knows) to the creator of perhaps the first beauty empire of the digital decade, Glossier.
The businesswoman recently left the presidency of her brand and is now “only” part of the Board. It remains the owner and owner, but the brand is now much more than its cool personality – PINK -Millennial and try a new shot now with a bigger physical presence aka sold at Sephora.
And the article talks about the mistake of the girl as a model of a powerful woman, A self-sufficient woman that no longer fits today, where there is greater social education, whether about feminism or race. Let’s face it, the girl of the last decade was much more about privilege and opportunity and nowadays there is no way to hide it anymore.
According to the article, which interviewed many entrepreneurs of the new generation: GIRLBOSS has become a PEJORATIVE term.
And the aversion to the term is not new. While researching it, I came across an article from Business Insider that sums up the era.
“The term “girl” is infantilizing. It still largely excludes women of color, perpetuates negative stereotypes of female leaders, reinforces unmet expectations for working women, and discourages full inclusion in the workplace.”
And Forbes also recently wrote an article about the “obituary” of the term. One passage that really caught my attention was from linguistics professor Kristen Syrett:
“Once you edit something like ‘boss’ — and you don’t have ‘Boyboss’ or ‘Maleboss’ — it really makes it very clear that we are still, as women, fighting against [uma imagem] that was not formed by us.
He’s reminding everyone that there’s a style to being a boss: that he’s the boss and then he’s the boss. And no matter how hard you work, you’re still a girl — you’re a girl in a man’s world.”
Dissatisfied, they go further and show that, while initially well-intentioned, the phrase actually does more harm than good to women entrepreneurs:
“The rise of Girlboss-style founders has actually made the situation more difficult because it obscures the reality that it’s harder than ever to raise money as a woman.”
Sophia disagrees
Recently, in response to the Fast Company publication, Sophia Amoruso, who previously asked people to stop using the term, now responds:
“How is it acceptable to pit and rank female founders against each other? I admire and often envy those who choose to build a business with their heads down – focus is important and we don’t all need to be on the radar – but explicitly discouraging female founders from being and remaining obvious at the risk of criticism is extremely irresponsible.
I already have the memo. Glad I fell on my sword as a victim of misogyny, but I also hope we learn from this garbage and give future female founders some grace.”
All of this basically resulted in a multiple day of work, over exposure and more demanding women while the man continued to be… a man.
Today, only 10% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, despite women making up 47% of the workforce. Female founders receive only 2% of venture capital. And if a woman co-founded a company with a man, her chances of getting funding increase to 16%.
According to the magazine, the girlboss method has given way to another expression that gained fame thanks to another female entrepreneur, in this case Brené Brown. Vulnerability has been a key element in making once-super-powerful people seem real, approachable and genuine. Well, at least ~ editably true.
And the article ends with 4 aspects that should be in the basic basket of every leader: empathy, kindness, support and cooperationwhatever genre it is.
A company is always a collective enterprise and the girl persona puts a lot of pressure on a single individual to represent the brand.
