Pop Culture dictionary
girlboss
[ gurl-baws ]
What does girlboss mean
Girlboss is a term used to refer to a self-made woman who runs her own company or leads one. The term was used positively at first but is now more commonly used as a negative or ironic term.
As a positive term, girlboss was typically used to describe a woman who was financially successful and who held a high-ranking position at a company, often their own company. In a positive light, girlboss was often used as an empowering term to praise women who succeeded in the face of misogyny in industries usually dominated by men.
As a negative term, girlboss is typically used to describe a woman who views herself as a heroic figure while engaging in the same ruthless and abusive tactics used by powerful businessmen. The term is especially likely to be used in this negative sense if the girlboss is creating a toxic work environment for other female employees.
Based on the negative sense, girlboss is also often used as an ironic term to describe women doing mundane or unimpressive things as if they were empowering things.
In the negative and ironic senses, girlboss is also often used as a verb to mean “to act like a girlboss.”
Where does girlboss come from?
Girlboss is a combination of the words girl (“young woman”) and boss. The term refers to a woman who acts as a boss by leading or owning a business.
The term girlboss was popularized by businesswoman Sophia Amoruso in her 2015 book #Girlboss. In the book, Amoruso uses the term girlboss to refer to herself and generally to refer to any self-made woman who started her own successful business. For the next several years, girlboss was mostly used as a positive, empowering term to refer to female CEOs and other women in positions of power in the business world.
Over time people began to argue that the term and concept of a girlboss were being used to mask abusive business tactics as benevolent feminism, including by Amoruso herself.
A negative sense of girlboss became especially popular when it began to be used in the “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” meme that emerged in 2021. The meme ironically uses girlboss alongside the negative terms gatekeep and gaslight to suggest that powerful women and men are creating toxic workplaces while disguising it as female empowerment.
This meme and other negative uses of girlboss also caused it to be used ironically to describe silly, boring, or embarrassing acts done by women as being examples of empowerment.
Today, the negative and ironic senses of girlboss are much more commonly used than the positive one.
Examples of girlboss
Who uses girlboss?
Girlboss is now most often used negatively to refer to a ruthless businesswoman or to ironically refer to embarrassing or silly acts as if they were empowering.
lol girlboss so hard you get nominated to the supreme court so you can strip women of all their rights just like the men!
— Emmy Potter (@emmylanepotter) September 25, 2020
Pretty much laying in bed sick and dying, just ate but still hungry, cold, wanting coffee, and on the verge of crying. That's so girlboss of me 🤪
— Alina (@mewieschapstick) November 4, 2022
…TL;DR if #Barbie has a direct thematic ancestor in meta-comedy, IMO it's less "LEGO MOVIE" than "AUSTIN POWERS;" which had a similar relationship to "60s swinger sexuality"+"spy movies" that this has to "Barbies"+"girlboss marketing" (i.e. "FUN! …but also let's talk?")
— Bob Chipman 😁 bobchipman.bsky.social (@the_moviebob) July 24, 2023
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of girlboss like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of girlboss that will help our users expand their word mastery.