Feminism has never been “one size fits all:” there are many different interpretations of feminism and approaches to women's empowerment within feminist thought. One would think that any interpretation of feminism would be beneficial toward combating issues like gender inequality and how intersecting axes of oppression impact women in society—but this is unfortunately not the case. For example, “girl boss feminism” is a sub-type of feminist thought that favors middle-to-upper-class white women, without doing anything to dismantle patriarchal systems.
The “girl boss” took the world by storm in 2010, creating a self-declared feminist reclamation of the corporate world. On the surface, it may appear to be a movement aligned with the principles of feminism through female empowerment, but a deeper examination reveals that "girl-boss feminism" is not genuine feminism at all but rather completely contrary to the ultimate goals of feminism. Girl-boss feminism does call out the fact that women account for 47.7% of the global workforce, and only 27.1% of women are managers and leaders, but pinpointing the problem of gender inequality and providing a surface-level empowerment speech is about the limit of the movement's capabilities.
Origin Of The #GirlBoss
The term “girl-boss” traces back to Sophia Amoruso, creator of Nastygal.com. She is also the founder of GirlBoss, a community for ambitious women who want to succeed in the corporate world financially. She based the #girlboss movement on her journey from selling vintage clothing on eBay to running a once-successful fashion brand. Her ideology was feminist-coded on the surface: if she could go from “rags to riches.,” then any woman could. The term girl-boss “...seems to imply that the words ‘girl’ and ‘boss’ are inherently at odds, thus, the need to combine the two to indicate a woman boss-figure.” Of course, the need to add a feminizing disclaimer in front of a “boss” does emphasize the issues of gender equality within the workplace: historically, when society labels someone a “boss,” people will default to assuming they are a man. Supporters of the #girlboss movement say that representing the title “girlboss” is empowering because it shows that girls can be bosses too, not just boys! (When has a man in power ever been called a boy?)
The term though does not actually empower women toward true equality within the workplace, though, because “...a girl is a young woman – to suggest that a female worker or leader is a #girlboss directly infantilizes her.” The phrase itself is not even rooted in true empowerment: it makes the thought of powerful and successful women ``...more palatable by rolling it in glitter and pinkwashing it.” If the title of a “feminist” movement perpetuates the problematic power dynamics it’s supposedly trying to solve, it will not be successful.
“Choice” Feminism and Intersectionality
One of the fundamental tenets of feminism is intersectionality: recognizing the diverse experiences of women based on factors such as race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and disability. True intersectional feminism strives to dismantle not only the gender binary but also other oppressive structures at work within the capitalist system. girl-boss feminism, however, focuses on the achievements of privileged women, overlooking the unique challenges faced by marginalized women and perpetuating inequality and gender binary ideologies within the feminist movement. In this way, girl-boss feminism implies a sort of “choice” feminism, in which all women are said to have a choice to wake up and decide to #girlboss. Most women cannot just wake up and decide to #girl-boss, however: they have many more hoops to jump through. The movement, then, lacks full representation of the struggle that all women may face in the corporate world (and beyond). Sophia Amoruso is a white girl, and her ideology reflects a lack of understanding of how the world works for women who lack a good amount of privilege. The girlboss can be roughly defined as a stereotype, according to writer Moira Donegan: “...usually millennial, white, and straight—that represented women’s professional ambition.” This class of women have more privilege in the workplace environment than women of color or different gender or sexual identities.
Identifying as a girl-boss does not incite change but rather creates a “...damaging identity that contradicts the progressive theory of intersectional feminism…”. To truly bring forth change for women, everyone’s struggles need to be included in the narrative. Girl bosses look to compete with both women and men, trying to gain the most power and wealth. If their school of thought took a step back and looked at the intersections between capitalist and patriarchal thought, it would become evident that a communal approach is needed. To be a #Girlboss is inherently capitalist: be out for individual financial gain and use your privilege to break through any sort of glass ceiling in the corporate world. Capitalism excessively “...promotes competition over collaboration” and not only threatens a woman’s growth within society but can also alienate her from her own sexuality. How then, can a movement that relies on capitalism be feminist?
On the topic of the intersection between the #girlboss, sexuality, and capitalism one name comes to mind: Gwenyth Paltrow. Her company Goop is a perfect example of why girlboss feminism is not actually feminist. Paltrow’s privilege aided her in establishing Goop, and rather than creating a company to authentically empower women’s relationship with their sexuality, Paltrow’s primary goal was to gain more money without scientifically backing up her claims. Once again, being a white woman and owning a company does not make you a feminist icon. Yes, it makes you a woman and a boss—but it does not mean you have the greater interest of women at heart.
Supporters of girlboss feminism proudly declared that the movement was a way for women to win power back from the men who run things. They declared themselves feminists through “female empowerment” because they fought for surface-level equality. While some white women could gain representation within the corporate world/workforce, this was not the case for women of color. This 2023 diagram on the left illustrates the lack of representation for women of color in a corporate role. While 28% of women hold a C-suite position in the corporate world, only 6% are women of color. If being a #Girlboss was truly empowering and un-doing gender equality, how come only white women tend to reap the benefits? It’s not feminist to only provide a pathway for privileged women to gain more representation in the workplace.
The “broken-rung” would have needed to be addressed by the #girlboss movement to warrant distinction as genuinely feminist. The full problem with gender equality in the workplace can be seen in the diagram on the right. The #girlboss would see that for every 100 men, 87 women overall are promoted to manager. They would fail to see that for every 100 men there are 91 white women promoted and only 54 black women. The statistics paint the true reality for women in the workplace: women empowerment should lift all women, not just those with privilege. The “girlbossification” of the workforce is another example of surface-level change that still upholds the main structure of the patriarchy. After all,“...why would [you] expect that a female billionaire would help the average woman more than a male billionaire would help the average man?” While "girl-boss feminism" may resonate with some as a form of personal empowerment, it lacks the depth and commitment to social justice reform that characterizes genuine feminism. Don’t be a girl-boss feminist—instead, be a human. Understand that identities have intersecting elements and that not all women are given the same privilege in society.
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Written by Alyssa Morterud.
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