Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THERE’S A NEW campaign calling for an end to the use of the word “bossy” on the grounds that it stops little girls from being ambitious. The Ban Bossy campaign is the brainchild of Lean In, the non-profit organisation set up by Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook’s chief operating officer. “Words like ‘bossy’ send a message: don’t raise your hand or speak up,” reads the introduction on its website. “By the age of 12, girls are less interested in leading than boys, a trend that continues into adulthood.”
As with most campaigns these days, it comes with the backing of a troop of celebrities. In the one-minute video, Diane von Furstenberg, Jennifer Garner and Condoleezza Rice all wax lyrical about the pejorative use of the word “bossy, and claim how banning the word would encourage young girls to step into leadership roles. Victoria Beckham adds: “It is thought-provoking that a man in charge can be described as commanding, however a woman in the same position may be called bossy.”
“By middle school,” declares an authoritative-sounding voiceover, “girls are less interested in leadership than boys, and that’s because they worry about being called bossy.” I’m not sure if there are studies to back that one up? Beyoncé finishes off the film with the catchy, “I’m not bossy; I’m the boss.” So basically we have lots of bossy women, bossing us around, telling us we’re not allowed to call bossy women bossy.
No doubt we women are falling behind in leadership. The CSO’s Women and Men in Ireland study in 2010 found that Irish women work fewer hours, earn less and are under-represented in the Oireachtais as well as in local and regional authorities. In 2011, only 15.1 per cent of TDs were women, while they accounted for just over a third of members of State Boards, less than a fifth of members of local authorities and just over a third of the membership of Vocational Education Committees.
Women are not well-represented at senior level positions: only 36 per cent of medical and dental consultants are women, 53 per cent of primary school managers, and 41 per cent of second-level school managers. The report also shows that women’s income in 2009 was around 73 per cent of men’s income. After adjusting for the longer hours worked by men, women’s hourly earnings were shockingly only around 94 per cent of men’s.
Still, banning a fairly benign word is hardly a problem big enough to warrant such a campaign of combined star power. Besides, the whole thing smells too much of feminist thought police, like the early days of radical feminism that always sought to ban and restrict stuff rather than trying to create compelling alternatives. Banning things and enforcing speech codes that prohibit normal language is only going to be damaging to female empowerment. You are never going to open up a girl’s options by restricting the way we can talk about them. It’s counterintuitive.
Most reactions have been fairly negative. Twitter ranged from the tepid to the hostile. Jessica Roy at Time Magazine wrote: “I am bossy. And I don’t give a *$&% if you call me that,” Slate’s Katy Waldman said: “I don’t intend to stop using it, even if the feminist super-team tells me to.”
You see, getting rid of the word won’t get rid of the actual problem. Instead, let’s get used to being “bossed” by a woman. The discomfort will fade and the word will be flipped to a positive thing. Being called bossy doesn’t bother me. Maybe because I’m a well-adjusted, grown up but “bossy” doesn’t bother me in the way that other hate words do. This b-word isn’t what’s stopping us reaching our potentials.
Looking to ban a word is about as bossy as you can get. Besides, we’re very rarely bossy anyway, we’ve mastered the art of passive aggressive bitchiness. It’s just far more socially tolerable. There’s something else these very powerful ambitious women could do: reclaim the word. Embrace it. Stand together and say, “We’re bossy — so what?” Because it’s true, and it’s not always a bad thing, and actually, it is already happening around us every single day.
Lorraine Courtney is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter @lorrainecath.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
He forgot problem creators.. Which they are guilty
@Celtic Eagle: Sorry pal but going by MM’s personal theory YOU SIR are a problem exploiter because erm, there is no middle ground, but don’t you fret none because under those very terms you are also a problem solver
@Frank Cauldhame: Too much free drink at the ard feis, there frank? Take it easy now, some of you might have to do an interview in the morning.
He bankrupted our country
@Paul Byrne: You obviously do not read newspapers or listen to TV or radio.net news. Ireland is not bankrupt. It has a 6 billion surplus this year. Guess you never heard of the Celtic Tiger and the bank bail out. Your lack of knowledge about economic matters is shameful.
@Don Hogan: convenient of you to have forgotten the € 60 odd Billion yet to be repaid for the bank bail out.
@Don Hogan: if we have 6 billion surplus, how come our housing, our homeless, healhcare, our elderly our carers i could go on, are in such dire need ? Answer me that?
@Don Hogan: Would that be the same bank bailout that Martin stated never happened.
@Paul Hedderman: false. The bail out loans were restructured under Noonan and spread out over 40 years. Which the next 2 generations are saddled with. The troika loans amounted to €67.5 billion. The Nama payments barely cover interest payments or non troika loans.
@Paul Hedderman: ’250+ billion debt to do with govt general mismanagement of finances over the years’…… Would you like to enlighten us as to who was in government for those years? No worries, we already know the culprits.
@Paul Linehan: Yep, majority of isnt bailout which is the point.
@Paul Hedderman: But what parties mismanaged the country’s finances to give us a 250+billion deficit over the last 100 or so years?
The paragraph about 6000 houses and SF objections, with added caption that fact checkers previously found the claim misleading sums up the fake narrative of FF and Micheal Martin.
How does false narratives solve anything????
What a muppet
No story still from the Journal about the laptop seized by the Gardai?
@Dave Byrne: which?
That’s a very Binary definition Mr Martin.. I thought in this time of woke theology there would be many different kinds of political ideas and definitions of people rather than just 2
@a politicians promise is as good as a lie: Woke theory is a pile of rubbish designed to let people off the hook for their own failings and mistakes.
Why is an English pension fund buying up properties and leasing them back to the government on a 20 year lease and still owning the property, while this government keep paying the bill.
He conceded that homelessness was unacceptable, and still he has confidence in o’brien. Well holy God….
Exploiting a business opportunity is not wrong Michael. Denis O’Brien serviced the need for water meters when it was required by government. The whole point of business is to exploit an opportunity. So such a statement is ludicrous
Problem solvers.. lol
Where exactly these alleged problem solving politicians?
Why is it that politicians, who create our problems, are the same people to solve them?
Very true. He is doing an excellent job and is a steady mature leader in a time of paid actors.
When you think of FF:FG it always reminds me of only fools and horses, when trigger has had the same broom for years
We are the best little country in Europe
Not sure Ukraine is regarded as a small nation.
FF like FG are irrelevant. They ill be both annihilated at the next election. The boomers who’ve blindly vited them in for the last 40yrs are on the way out. The youth see them for what they are.
Leave it to the keyboard Warriors!
have your say