![]() Others may say the term never achieved its purpose of allegedly empowering all women, as it never really sought to break down existing power structures that benefited men, but rather, to extend these corrupt practices to women. That is to say, the fact that girlbosses are associated with fraudulent business practices due to the actions of some individual actors, who happen to be women, further perpetuates sexist standards that keep women from rising in the workplace. Some may find that the term is dangerous in how it further highlights a group’s marginalized identity. This leads to the question - is it harmful that a term originally designed to empower women in the workplace is now being utilized to mock their fall from grace? Someone successfully boiling water or going to class on time, for example, could be ironically labeled as a “girlboss moment.” Perhaps because some of the very people who were touted as girlbosses have fallen from grace, or perhaps due to a change in cultural norms, recent uses of the term are characterized by irony. By her trajectory, Holmes is, arguably, the quintessential girlboss. In 2016, her company Theranos was revealed to be fraudulent, the revolutionary blood testing technology it claimed to have invented virtually nonexistent. As Amanda Mull states in The Atlantic, “The confident, hardworking, camera-ready young woman of a publicist’s dreams apparently had an evil twin: a woman, pedigreed and usually white, who was not only as accomplished as her male counterparts, but just as cruel and demanding too.”Įlizabeth Holmes emerged during this era of girlbosses, and was framed as such by the media. The entrepreneur who popularized it, Amoruso, was revealed to have allegedly discriminatory labor practices. Yvonne Tang / DFP Staffīut this image of the benevolent capitalist girlboss was quickly revealed to be a farce. ![]() Female CEOs were not just building their wealth in their business endeavors, but also acting in service to all womankind through their individual success. The emergence of female CEOs thus framed their careers as morally righteous. The term girlboss rose to prominence in 2014, with the publication of entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso’s autobiography “#GirlBoss.” The term was meant to describe the movement of career women stepping into leadership positions typically dominated by men. ![]() The recent trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has brought up the discussion of “Girl Bosses” and whether the term should have a place in the workplace and our culture.
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