You may have heard about Sheryl Sandberg and Maria Ana Chevaz’ crusade to eliminate the word Bossy from the dictionary. They argue that confident women are often called bossy, sometimes more than men, and this negative stereotype can prevent them from realizing their full potential. Despite earning the majority of college degrees, women make up just 19% of the U.S. Congress, 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs and 10% of heads of state. But is “bossy” really to blame?
As a company that focuses on the emotional associations of words, I can understand the initial reaction to a word that perhaps has historically been negatively coupled to assertive women. But perhaps the campaign should instead extol the virtues of bossiness, and work toward changing the traditional perceptions and associations of the word instead. After all, being a boss means you’re a leader, a confident decision maker, an inspiring visionary. As a mother of a daughter (and son), I encourage that!
At BuzzBack, we applaud women leaders, in fact, half of our employees are women. But more importantly, we reinforce a culture that allows flexibility both for women and men to attract the best talent. In addition, as a woman-owned company, we are classified as a diversity supplier among many of our top consumer products and pharmaceutical clients. These include Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, Wrigley and many others who support diversity suppliers in their day-to-day course of business. And if all this makes me seem bossy, I embrace it!
