6 reasons why you should consider giving up on being a girl boss

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By Brihony Tulloch

Professional and hardworking women have been around since the earliest days of capitalism, but even in this day and age, many women are still fighting to get a seat at the table.

The Bronze Age saw agricultural societies tending the fields, practising forestry, and establishing early laws around business and economy. Women were in the thick of it from this era, spanning across time and history and making a killing.

But as modern Western societies evolved, the role of mother and homemaker emerged, until the advancement of equal and civil rights during the 1960s and 1970s put education, empowerment and a professional career back on the table.

But in recent decades women have been reclaiming their independence and paying heed to their business desires and acumen.

However, the "Girl Boss" movement has been called into question, with many pointing out it isn't all it's chalked up to be.

At face value, the idea of being a "girl boss" sounds like a fun and progressive concept.

While most people would agree there's still work to be done in the world of women's rights, a girl boss conjures up images of an accomplished businesswoman who exudes confidence and self-assuredness in her abilities and decisions.

While this 2010 term connotes progress and empowerment, historically speaking, working women are nothing new. Women have been running businesses for centuries, millennia even, so why is criticism at what is clearly a feminist term being thrown around?

The simple answer is that it can tend to be hypocritical.

Coined by real-life boss babe Sophia Amoruso in the mid-2010s, soon after the term became popular, some women started to realise that the standards being set in the world of the girl boss required a level of privilege that most people, let alone most women, just don't have access to.

These goals required stringent time demands, social alienation, and a decent amount of starting capital. It quickly became evident that girl bossing was more about becoming a CEO than it was about feminine empowerment.

In 2013 COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg released a book telling women in industry to "lean in". What she meant was for women to draw strength from their own ambitions and force their seats at the table.

Not to wait idly by while being overlooked, but to lean in on conversations, meetings, and social gatherings, and to actively seek the opportunity for the growth women desired and deserved.

Sandberg's rhetoric was later called into question.

Critics identified there is a certain level of "just do it" in the girl-boss mentality. The message seemed to be: if you're being met with adversity, never mind the mental and emotional toll - just get over it and get on with it.

If you are actively denied the opportunity because of your sex or gender, just find some way to power through. The girl-boss mentality soon became synonymous with dismissing the very real struggles of professional women in being heard, seen, valued, and respected.

As though Sandberg's book hadn't raised concerns regarding the movement, the woman who coined the "girl boss" term, Sophia Amorusso, was sued in 2015 for illegally firing pregnant employees.

She was prosecuted, and as a result in 2016 her clothing brand Nasty Girl had to file for bankruptcy.

Girl bossing was touted as being the latest and greatest feminist anthem. It was supposed to be the battle cry of millions of industrious women taking control of their finances, their lives, and their worth.

So why did it seem like everyone who became a "girl boss" then went on to lose sight of the purpose of the movement?

A prime example of this is Rachel Hollis, a fitness guru and CEO of Girl Boss who posted a TikTok, glorifying the grind while disregarding those she deemed to be "under" her.

In the TikTok, she goes off about how she wakes up at 4 am, how the women she looks up to are "unrelatable" to chase their unimaginable levels of success, and how if she becomes relatable to other women, she's "doing it wrong."

This attitude is indicative of what can go wrong with the girl-boss mentality.

Hollis is simply not empowering other women. In fact, her attitude goes directly against the essence of the Girl Boss movement.

And while she has since apologised, there still seems to be a way to go toward breaking down some of the negativity that can stem from using the term.

To the girl boss, feminism's approach to equality can be found entirely within the corporate sphere. If you're financially well-off and already have opportunities, then you've got equality. And if you don't, you're not doing something right.

As many critics have highlighted in recent years, girl bossing appears to put the onus on the women it claims to empower to change the systems that are keeping them down - instead of putting pressure on the system itself to change.

At its core, the message appears to be that since some women have beaten the system and found success in traditionally male-dominated areas, any woman should be able to as well; it's the rhetoric of "I did it, why can't you?".

When in reality, a woman's ability to be a girl boss can be hindered by a lack of access to education, family commitments, mental health or disability.

Simply put, disregard for these factors underpins the concept of being a girl boss, which raises the question: if an idea empowers some, but not all, is it empowerment?

If you've done any significant research on girl bossing, you've probably not seen a lot of women of colour in your travels.

One of the reasons for this is being a girl boss often requires a certain level of privilege that commonly includes having existing wealth, connections, and standing in society.

Girl bossing should, as a feminist ideal, fight against these prerequisites to create space at the table for women of all backgrounds.

Acknowledging this fact is just the first step in dismantling it, and there's still a long way to go in bridging this divide to foster inclusivity in the girl boss movement.

There's a certain grit involved in reaching the level of success needed to be considered a "girl boss." Finding success will always require hard work, but concepts like these can often focus on an idealised version of achievement.

For some women, success is taking advantage of online MBA courses in Australia and building specialised business skills to take their careers to the next level. For others, it's encouraging your friend to re-enter the workforce after a few years at home raising a family.

It might even be starting a workplace charity fund to support victims of domestic violence.

These days most people seem to have a healthy dose of scepticism about being a girl boss and instead choose to focus on the best parts of this mindset- embodying self-assuredness, resilience, and leadership. The modern woman must define success on her terms.