The Queen Bey herself is on board to ban “bossy!” Are you?
In case you haven’t heard, Ban Bossy is a campaign started by COO of Facebook and Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead author Sheryl Sandberg. The goal of this book is to encourage women to “lean in” to leadership positions and take a seat at the table, because by having more female voices in positions of power there will be more equitable opportunities created for all. This goal was taken to the next level with the start of the Ban Bossy campaign.
If you haven’t seen the Ban Bossy campaign video on YouTube yet, then stop what you’re doing right now to go watch it. The video features Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Beyonce, actresses Jennifer Garner and Jane Lynch, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, along with others, to encourage people to ban “bossy” so that women and girls are not put down by words that discourage them from being leaders.
The major issue today is that a boy or man who asserts himself is called a leader, whereas when a girl or woman asserts herself, she runs the risk of being called bossy, stubborn, a know-it-all, or aggressive. In the classroom girls are called on less and interrupted more. Girls are holding back from taking leadership roles because of the risk of being called bossy.
This little word, and others like it, carry so much power because they send the message to girls that they shouldn’t speak up, that their opinions aren’t as worthy as those of men, and that carrying authority is a characteristic not to be admired. The main idea behind this Ban Bossy campaign is to encourage others to stop using negative language when talking about women in positions of leadership and power while encouraging them to be confident and strive to reach their goals.
Here at Connecticut College the female student body dominates campus (60:40 girl to guy ratio), and yet their presence doesn’t. Why is it that the top positions in our Student Government Association (president, vice president, and treasurer) are all filled by men? It seems that the women of Conn need to embrace the challenge of stepping up into leadership roles to make their ideas and opinions heard. With Conn’s new president, Katherine Bergeron now in office, the campus now has a wonderful example of a woman who has risen to the challenge of fulfilling a large and very important leadership position. Now it’s our turn Lady Camels! Let’s work together to increase our collective voice on campus and ban “bossy”!
For more information about Ban Bossy, ways to get involved, and links to promote Ban Bossy through social media, visit www.banbossy.com