“I want every little girl who’s told she’s bossy to be told she has leadership skills instead.” – Sheryl Sandberg
Many of you have probably seen Sheryl Sandberg’s quote.
She’s not wrong, but to many women the terms ‘bossy’ and ‘leader’ can be interchangeable.
And there’s no shame in being “bossy” if it creates an equal opportunity for a woman’s voice to be heard or her actions to be recognized.
To others, however, the word doesn’t carry quite the same cachet.
Instead, it’s meant to shame us, silence us.
But here’s my radical suggestion: let’s take back bossy.
Just as disabled people have taken back terms like “crip” (short for crippled) or some women have taken back the word “slut”, let’s re-appropriate a word that was designed to disempower us and use it to empower us.
Let’s redefine ‘bossy’ on our terms.
Let’s own the word and make it into everything we want it to be.
About Take Back Bossy
This section of FSGwomen will include personal reflections and essays flowing from my cathartic need to rediscover and reorient what it means to be a woman in the 21st century, a woman in a non-traditional industry, and a mother trying to build an equal space in the world for her daughter.
I fervently hope that my experiences and insights will help you on your path to #TakeBackBossy.
Explore these insights, resources, and tools to help you Take Back Bossy:
The Farmer's Survival Guide™ 