Why "Girl Boss" is More Demeaning Than Empowering

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Most of us are aware of the variety of multi-level marketing (MLM) companies that exist. These are things like Pampered Chef, Scentsy, Mary Kay, Stella + Dot, etc. Many of the employees of these companies are females and some of these companies are owned/run by women. Lots of women are employed with MLM companies because they give you the opportunity to set your own hours and work from home...which is especially helpful if you have children.

However, there's a trend I've been seeing amongst these companies as of late and it's the term "girl boss". I know you've probably seen it too. "I need 2 more ladies who want to be a girl boss" or "Be a girl boss with me! Here's how...".

I would like to briefly plea to women to stop using that term.

Dear female MLM ambassadors,

Please stop using the term "girl boss". You might think it's empowering, inspirational or just cute to use this term but it's not. What it does is actually undermine your cause. Instead of empowering women, we are creating a separate category of the original term "boss". So women can't just be a boss? Apparently we have to modify "boss" and make it separate by adding "girl" in front of it.

And don't even get me started on why we are using the term "girl" instead of woman or female. I guess because it seems cute and catchy? But it's even more demeaning because now you are saying that you aren't a normal boss, you're a little/young/naive version of a real boss.

Ladies, instead of using the term "girl boss", I propose we just use boss. Why? Because it's a sign of equality. We don't need our own separate term...yours will do just fine. So, to all those women out there who run their own business - be the absolute best boss you can be. Leave the girl bosses at the playground.

Note: I'm not knocking any MLM companies since I'm a patron of a few.