No, #Girlboss Has Not Fixed Sexism In STEM, And It’s Time To Address The Real Issues.

By: Ava Spalding

Due to faulty media representation of modern feminism, the issue of sexism in STEM fields has been twisted to only focus on certain types of misogyny and avoid real conversations. Remember the 2010’s feminist movement ‘girl boss?’ Recently, it’s been under fire for its efficacy and counterproductiveness.

The reasoning for this being first, that the status quo for women in STEM remains quite unfair despite the movement. According to HuffPost, research done on how attention is split in science classrooms found that teachers spent 43% more time conveying basic content to boys compared to girls. There was clear variation in the amount of attention and time focused between different genders, meaning that there is still a good amount of work to do in our attitudes towards women in STEM.

Image: Kelly Caminero

Second, as bad as the rates are in science for women in general, people of color and other minorities are represented even worse. According to the National Science Board, women of color only make up 5% of people in STEM. The most recent ‘girl boss’ sentiments not only have done nothing to fix this but actively worsen the problem through moral and company handwashing. Those who support such movements get to claim that they demolished gender stereotypes by saying a catchphrase, leading to no actual work being done.

Last, the wave of ‘girl boss’ feminism has only included white cishet women. For example, many brands who have capitalized upon this have had their CEOs step down due to accusations of discriminatory behavior. Reformation, a fashion company that “celebrates the female figure”, recently faced accusations of neglecting plus-sized models and diverse employees. The inconsistency between the equality many brands such as Reformation advertise and their actual practices holds up a mirror to reflect exactly what white feminism is. Such shaping of our idea of feminism for working women often means that female-presenting minorities feel alienated and disrespected in science fields.

Supporters of the undercover brand of white feminism may be quick to defend themselves by equating criticism of a feminine-centered movement to a critique of femininity itself. It’s true that we, as a society, have historically had negative reactions to feminine focuses and terms. However, my, and many others’ issues with ‘girl boss’ is not that it’s inherently feminine, but that it has historically been centered around the most privileged women’s experiences with misogyny.

So, what are the solutions to this clearly very large problem? The tentative answer to an ever-mutating problem is to critique the movements we support and ensure they remain intersectional. This includes examining the imagery they promote, for example not reducing femininity to what is biologically female. Bottom line, everyone can do their part by examining just what we’re supporting when we claim #girlboss.