Coined by Sophia Amoruso, the founder of clothing retailer Nasty Gal, the term “girlboss” was quickly adopted into the Gen Z vernacular. In her memoir of the same name, Amoruso recounts her journey of entrepreneurship and grit that resulted in the success of her transnational company. Amoruso describes herself as a girlboss in a rousing cry of feminism, but does the term still have the same effect today? As young women, when we look more closely at the capitalist undertones of being a girlboss, as well as the current generation’s tendency to turn practically everything into irony, is this still something we want to claim?Â
An article by Los Angeles Magazine says it best: girlboss culture is bright red lipstick on capitalism. It’s the same corrupt, toxic work environment that we’re familiar with, but now sugar-coated with feminism. While Amoruso can be praised as a self-starter (and yes, a girlboss), her company faced backlash for abusive management and unjust treatment of its employees and eventually went bankrupt. In optical allyship cases like these, we have to ask ourselves: what is the point of female leadership and “overthrowing the patriarchy” if we’re just going to do more of what the patriarchy did? Can we call this feminism based solely on the fact that a woman is in charge? Is that all feminism is? Â
Perhaps the most prolific use of the term can be found on TikTok. Paired with two other phrases to form the mantra “Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss,” what are we really promoting here? “Girlboss” gained traction among white millennial women, like Amoruso herself, who are often the perpetrators of white-centered feminism and performative activism. The irony lies in these women branding themselves as girlbosses and go-getters while they miss the bigger systemic issues, and Gen Z content creators pick up on this. Now, several years after the term was first picked up, it has become a sarcastic catch-all meme ascribed to any act of off-kilter feminism.Â
In order to combat the negative connotation of the phrase, we can reinvent it to do what it was originally created to do: uplift women against the background of male-dominated workspaces and encourage more female leadership. We need genuine women role models who use their high positions and hard work to champion feminism in their companies and stray from patriarchal capitalism. Maybe we call these women girlbosses, or maybe we call them something completely different, but either way, they will be the change we need to see.