Meanings
- neologismuncountableThe beliefs or mindset of a girlboss.
The girlbossism that existed in the 2010s has largely fallen out of favour because, unsurprisingly, it wasn't that easy to undo gender inequality in the workplace in one fell swoop.
2025 November 6, Ellie Muir, “In All's Fair, the girlboss archetype has never been more embarrassing”, in The Independent, archived from the original on 16 Feb 20262 more examples
The success of the film, together with the rising tide of grassroots countercultural movements on social media and the occasional and reluctant acknowledgment from the mainstream, signal that a broad awakening to the real limitations of girlbossism is underway.
2022 February 22, Helen Roy, “Girlboss, Interrupted”, in The American Mind, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2023This enemy feminism was on the other side of only some aisles from the suffragism of slavers and the proto-girlbossism of slave traders (best embodied by the staunchly feminist first woman senator of the US: white supremacist lynching fanatic Rebecca Latimer Felton).
2025, Sophie Lewis, Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation, unnumbered page
Origin
Cite this entry
girlbossism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/girlbossism
“girlbossism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/girlbossism. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “girlbossism,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/girlbossism.
Source: girlbossism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.