The Girlboss Is Over. It never served anyone in the first…
By: Jess Thoms
Tags: Women, Startup, Business, Culture, Female Founders

As the collective internet recently descended on cancelling the term #Girlboss, my friends and I who for so long fit the definition, sighed in relief.

The best part is no longer having the narrative to buy into in the first place.

A slew of prominent female founders were ousted recently in a wave of both Covid-19 related business failings, and as reports of toxic and racist workplaces arose.

As self-proclaimed #Girlbosses they ticked the gender diversity box, and sought praise for that alone. They got it.

Until recently, I was the same.

I grew up watching The Devil Wears Prada, hell bent on pursuing fashion journalism to achieve the Sex and the City dream. Fresh from graduation with a public relations degree and facing the dissolution of steady media jobs post-recession, I took a chance on myself. Enter Sophia Amoruso. I read #Girlboss, I stumbled across Gary Vaynerchuck’s ‘hustle culture’ content and set off under the millennial pink umbrella of mid-2010’s feminism. I was a #WomanInTech, a #Girlboss, a #FemaleFounder, a brand. I bought Glossier, wore Outdoor Voices, and went to the Girlboss Rally. I was a member of The Wing.

Being branded a #Girlboss was cool. A compliment. Just being female earned a diversity tick. I wrote press releases for clients that highlighted the percentage of women present in their workplace, even though I knew behind the scenes they were not supported. Just our presence seemed good enough. The only ratio anybody worried about increasing was the female percentage. Not race, ability, sexual orientation or class.

In my tech career I worked with a range of people, but only directly hired other white, millennial females for internships. I saw myself in them, and wanted to pull them along in my footsteps. But that’s how the problem perpetuates itself. It’s how white men created their own self perpetuating boys club. The #Girlbosses were simply doing that all over again. It was never about true change.

We lived in a self indulgent bubble that didn’t even serve us, it just took years to realise it. Because if the system doesn’t exist for everyone, it serves no one.

“(The #Girlboss) saw gender inequity everywhere she looked; this gave her something to wage war against. Racial inequity was never really on her radar. That was someone else’s problem to solve.” — Leigh Stein, “The End of the Girlboss Is Here”

We thought that money and power in the hands of the #Girlboss was a good thing. Yet, these new resources often just improved the individual, not the community. The #Girlboss wasn’t holding the door open for those behind her. The myth that the #Girlboss was improving the workplace is dangerous.

We didn’t change the system, we just showed up and tried to emulate it. And by thriving within it, we failed. We never questioned how to change the system or who it was even designed for. We just tried to show up as the girl version of the bosses we wanted to be. We knew how to be sexy but not overtly, seem powerful — but also carefree. Be cool, relatable, funny, but not enough to be deemed unprofessional. I know personally, in order to keep my seat at the table I ignored every sly comment, every jab at my gender or sexuality. Every micro-aggression. I ignored them all. I failed.

Then, 2020 arrived. A string of golden era #Girlbosses were outed for racism, harassment, and toxic work environments.

Among them, founders of The Wing, which fell astonishingly quickly from grace.

The Wing is probably the ‘best’ example of the problematic #Girlboss. As stories swirled earlier in the year about treatment of workers, The Wing kept strong on it’s facade of female empowerment. The implications of Covid-19 finally shuttered the social club, and stories from women of color working as space staff were finally heard. Their treatment behind the scenes was the antithesis of what The Wing preached publicly. In former member Lindsay Daly’s video essay about The Wing, she documents the mostly positive physical and social experience once found there for members. The Wing had seemingly good intentions, but it failed. Daly notes how ultimately feminism and capitalism struggle to intersect as The Wing prioritised the growth of their business over putting into practice the ideals the company was founded on.

“Feminism can be ugly. And dirty. And it doesn’t always look good on Instagram.” — Lindsay Daly

So, what’s next? Of course, female founders are here to stay. However now they can exist without labels, and re-write the rules to serve everyone. Not just themselves. Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter have accelerated the age of accountability, and there is no more hiding behind Instagram-ready feminism.

The new wave of female founders are not just going to make money, they’re going to make a difference.