girlboss

Meaning

1. A woman who runs her own career or business on her own terms.
2. Used ironically for a woman who copies hustle-culture excess while branding it as empowerment.

“She called herself a girlboss right before laying off half the team.”

Where it came from

Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso coined the term for her 2014 memoir, drawing on the “girlboss” archetype from 1970s Japanese pinky violence films. The word turned pejorative by the early 2020s as several high-profile girlbosses were tied to workplace scandals, and Amoruso herself later asked people to stop using it.