If a girl is ‘bossy’ it means she is domineering. That is not a good leadership skill.
If a girl is ‘bossy’ it means she doesn’t give others a chance to air their opinion. That is not a good leadership skill.
If a girl is ‘bossy’ it means she is harsh on her peers and dictatorial in her manner. Those are not good leadership skills.
I want every little girl who is told she is bossy to be told why this behaviour is a problem. I want every little girl who behaves in this manner to be told if she wants to be a leader then bossy behaviour is not the way to go about it and it is not the way to earn the respect of your peers. I want every little girl to be taught good leadership skills so that if they do choose to enter those careers that need those skills then they are capable and ready. I want every little girl to learn to take constructive criticism, and I want society to stop coddling girls and women as if they can’t take criticism.
So no, I don’t want us telling little girls that they have leadership skills when in reality they’re bossy. That’s not helping anybody. It’s certainly not helping those girls to become good leaders. In fact if anything it’s doing the opposite - it’s teaching them that shitty leadership skills are OK. And all that’s gonna do is lead to generations of women who are terrible leaders, and all that’s gonna do is lead to generations of people who think that women can’t lead. Isn’t that the opposite of what people are trying to achieve here?
