#BanBossy

The world according to Tiffany...

Women earn the majority of college degrees, yet women make up only…

*19% of U. S. Congress

*5% of Fortune 500 CEOs

*10% of Heads of State

As a teenager I was often labeled as a pre-Madonna, a bitch, overly assertive, commanding, and bossy. For the longest time during my teenage years, I could not figure out why some people thought that this was wrong. Then I recently came across this new social movement to ban bossy (I have attached a WSJ article on the movement here.) I always knew I was assertive and confident, but knew there was nothing wrong with it; although the world told me a different story.

After having read about this movement and making the conscious decision that I was going to "#banbossy," for myself and for people no matter the age or gender. Why was it wrong to be assertive? Why was it wrong to know what I wanted and to go for it? Is it wrong for me to aspire to leadership because I am a woman?

So now you are asking, why does this matter?  Because for so many young women and men like me, for a very long time those labels kind of haunted me, but like Condoleezza Rice said, “You’d better have thick skin.” (and I do...!)

Your next question is, what is in this for me? Well...when we really begin to embrace different and varying perspectives we as a culture, as a society, and as a human race will see immense forward progress.

From the start of this race of life, our young people need to know and understand that they can be valued, productive and contributing members of our society. Strangely enough sometimes I feel as if I owe the world and the people in it that made things more difficult for me, because of labels, a huge thank you…

Now by no means am I proposing we rid the world of the word "bossy." (That's ridiculous and preposterous) What I believe is that this movement at its core is about banning the negative connotation and stigma associated with such words-for anyone: male or female. For women, we should not have to shrink ourselves; there is nothing wrong with being assertive, commanding, or a leader. There is, however, something wrong with saying its wrong for just women to be bossy… especially in the application of children.

I am looking forward to the day as described by Condoleezza Rice “when it’s not a surprise that a woman has a powerful position.” This may not come in my lifetime, but hopefully my daughter will be one of those women leaders that it is not a shock to the worlds systems that she is leading instead of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*WSJ: “Sheryl Sandberg and Anna Maria Chavez on ‘Bossy,’ the Other B-word”