Girl Boss. Boss Babe. SHE-EO. Fempreneur. Yuck.
We see these terms everyday of the year, but I thought, what better time of year to rant about it than on International Women’s Day?
Being a female founder of a small business, my instagram feed is filled with other female entrepreneurs, which is super inspirational! But this topic, these titles, I simply do not love. So here we are, it’s time for semi- annual blog post, coming at you with all the realness in the world.
International Women’s Day
A day that I actually love. My introduction into International Women’s Day was in the workforce. To be honest, I don’t remember it being an important day through school. My male colleagues at the bank started an annual tradition of treating all of the women in the office to cupcakes and high kicks. They would come in, dancing, parading, singing, with sweets in hand. I was on the committee that treated women across the country to treats of appreciation, while sharing women in the workforce figures, and workshops. The day has always been motivational for me. We have a lot of work to do, but we are getting there, all thanks to the women that came before us.
While it is a day to absolutely positively celebrate girl power, can we just PLEASE end the girl boss. I’m talking the “She-EO”, “bossbabe”, “shEntrepreneur”, all of it. First of all, why must we gender the role? Second of all, is it because we, as women, aren’t quite ready or comfortable with stepping fully into the CEO title? The C-suite is infamously filled with men, and we are taking those numbers away from ourselves by inventing new titles. Why would I be a she-eo instead of CEO? I’m a boss, not a boss babe, and I’m an entrepreneur. I want the full title, the title society values, instead of downplaying my contributions. And don’t you?!
Especially this year, in these times, let's step into the real roles instead of making up new names. Covid has been HUGELY detrimental to women in the workforce. According to a study conducted by the Canadian Government, women’s job losses accounted for almost 54% of the job losses year over year. According to the National Women’s Law Society (American Data), four times as many women as men left the workforce at the beginning of the pandemic.
YOU ARE NOT A SHE-EO
Let’s talk c-suite for a sec. Despite the pandemic negatively impacting women in the workforce, 2021 was the best year for women representation in the Fortune 500 list. But the number is still STAGGERINGLY low, at 41. 2021 was also the first year a black woman made the list (and there were actually two!). So in 2021, women made up 8.2% of the list and there has been zero women of colour on this list until 2021. This showcases where we need to put the work in. Women in high ranking jobs. Women in the spot light, women at the helm of publicly traded empires.
So on this International Women’s Day. Let's support each other, let’s lift each other. Let’s champion each other in the workforce. And while we are shattering the patriarchy can we agree to shatter those boss babe mugs?
Okay it’s not a university paper, but here are some articles that I pulled figures from:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2021005/article/00005-eng.htm