“Girlboss” is a term that first became popular a decade ago. It was coined by Sophia Amoruso, the then-CEO of Nasty Gal, with the intention of being aspirational, and it’s in reference to women who are self-made leaders in a capitalist society. The term blew up in the mid 2010’s, but started dying out when people began analyzing it with a more critical lens. Many people have since argued that the term perpetuates a false version of feminism that is really just women using the same toxic business tactics as their male counterparts, but it’s okay because they’re women.
Luckily, the concept of a girlboss has begun to fade, but it’s still shockingly prevalent. Here are 18 of the biggest issues with girlboss feminism and why they’re so problematic.
It’s an Overcorrection
For much of history, women were not allowed to hold many of the careers that men are and were seen as only capable of being mothers and homemakers. Girlboss culture has created a mindset that in order to prove our intelligence and worth, we have to absolutely kill ourselves working all hours of the day, never taking breaks, and even that we have to put other women down to reach the top.
It Perpetuates a Culture of Women Working Harder than Men for the Same Pay
Girlboss feminism requires women to grind in order to make it anywhere, and certainly in order to reach the level of men. This ideal is in many ways anti-women because it claims they have to do an unrealistic amount of work in order to get paid the same as their male counterparts.
It Denounces the Importance of Self Care
Influencers who spread the girlboss mindset show themselves waking up at 6 a.m., working out, working full-time, cleaning the house, and every other adult thing they can fit into a reel. This is completely unrealistic and seems blind to the fact that human beings actually need rest to survive.
It Insinuates Women Need Their Own Effeminate Version of Hard Work
Women and men can be different in many ways, but girlboss feminism implies an inequality in worth rather than just differences. In Psychology Today, Leah Sheppard writes, “girlboss feminism protests too much. Beneath its sequined shell is the soft bigotry of low expectations. After all, if we truly believe that women are just as capable as men, would we need to gas them up in such patronizing ways?”
It’s Just Another Version of “Career Woman”
“Career woman” used to be the more widely used way to describe what we grew to call “girlboss”. The simple act of specifying that a woman is of a career is sexist in and of itself. We would never say “career man” because we would think, of course he’s a career man, he’s a man. Girlboss really did not move us forward from this insulting term in any way.
It Fosters a False Sense of Laziness
Girlbosses work 80-hour weeks, take on leadership positions, somehow do the impossible. But what about those of us who don’t want to spend every waking minute working? What about the women who prefer to work less so they can spend more time being creative, parenting, or whatever is good for them? Girlboss culture makes people feel useless and lazy when they are not.
It’s Dehumanizing
Girlboss culture equates relentless hard work in a capitalist environment to self-worth. It forgoes the complexities of the human experience and what women of different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds have to go through just to afford rent.
It Only Celebrates Women Who Have Achieved Capitalist Success
This is where the origin of the term “girlboss” becomes important. Even in 2024, Sophia Amoruso’s website is crammed with big, sexy numbers with lots of zeroes. It quantifies all her success down to every million-dollar win. Brutally, this is the way to succeed in a capitalist society, but it seems to say that big bucks are the only way to be a girlboss.
It Preserves Hustle Culture
Productivity is important, but it looks different for everybody, and you don’t have to be hustling and grinding nonstop to contribute something valuable to society. Hustle culture leads to burnout and often a lack of productivity because people aren’t allowing themselves to get the rest they need.
It Propagates Gender Power Structures
Bringing balance to our society requires equality, not superiority. So girlboss culture is also a problem because it makes many far-right individuals think feminism is about gaining power over men. We all need equal responsibility across the board.
It Says Hard Work Is Enough to Succeed
When people say things like, “you just have to work harder,” that often totally disregards how some people are truly victims of capitalism. There is nothing they could do to move upwards, no matter how hard they try.
It’s Not Intersectional
Girlboss culture forgets about people who are incapable of working due to disability, other responsibilities, and so on. It fails to mention those who can’t get a loan to start a business or who don’t have the education required for an entry-level role. It leaves out women who aren’t hired based on their weight, race, or religion.
It’s Doesn’t Paint a Real Picture of the World
The problem is that, when idealized the way it has been in the past, “girlboss” is too specific of a term to be effective in the real world. There are so many nuances and so much to consider when trying to get a grasp on the reality we live in, with so many groups being underrepresented and marginalized. Girlboss culture assumes that we all have the same jumping off point and refuses to account for anything else.
It Can Become Victim Blaming
Somebody who isn’t a “girlboss” might feel victimized by the term’s prevalence because of lack of resources that allow her to fit into that mold. Beyond the mere existence of the term, certain girlboss behaviors are associated with stomping on other women in order to move up the corporate ladder.
It’s a Stereotype
Girlboss feminism is like white feminism, but even more dividing. Because it seems to forget that not everyone can become a stereotypical girlboss, it puts non-disabled, white, middle-to-upper class, attractive, cisgender women at the front of the line.
It’s Become an Insult
The 2021 “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” meme (a parody of “Live, Laugh, Love”) is a prime example of this. “Girlboss” is used as an insult by both sides of the political spectrum but for very different reasons. Some liberals find girlbosses to be powerful women who are just masquerading as feminists but are actually perpetuating a negative system, whereas some conservatives find it to be laughable that a woman would try to have that much power.
It’s Inherently Contradictory
Girlboss culture is like the most confusing circle. It was originally perceived as feminist, then we decided it wasn’t. But the fact that it isn’t feminist is also an indication of a misogynistic society because it implies that women can’t be self-made. They are just products of a patriarchy anyway. The whole thing is probably best to move away from.
It Doesn’t Push Feminism Forward in Any Way
Due to the term’s contradictions and lack of inclusivity in nature, it really does set us back. There are so many ways to navigate the fight for feminism that don’t include killing ourselves working or putting other women down.
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