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GIRLBOSS IN THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED – online edition, September 2024) defines the noun girlboss, also girl boss, as follows:
An entrepreneurial, ambitious woman; especially one who runs her own business.
The OED adds the following note:
Popularized by Sophie Amoruso’s book #Girlboss (2014). Often preceded by a hashtag, reflecting its use in the title of Amoruso’s book, and its widespread use as a topic on social media.
I, too, must add a note: The name of this U.S. businesswoman, born in 1984, is Sophia Amoruso, not Sophie Amoruso.
The earliest occurrence of the noun girlboss, also girl boss, that the OED has recorded is as follows, from The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut, USA) of Monday 31st January 1994 [page B6, column 2]:
Being nice, wearing skirts, having fun and
Running the Show
By Susan Campbell
Courant Staff WriterNot long ago, Beverly Tuttle, president and CEO of Consumer Credit Counseling of Connecticut, held an all-day training meeting for her staff.
This could have been a deadly boring and fruitless exercise, but Tuttle, girl boss, loaded the staff onto a bus—where they watched movies—and visited company branches that nobody had seen.
EARLIEST OCCURRENCES OF GIRL BOSS
However, the noun girl boss, which is of American-English origin, is in fact much older. The earliest occurrences of this noun that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) of Sunday 20th January 1895 [page 20, column 8]:
A GIRL BOSS.
She Has a Big Theater Under Her Thumb.
New York Advertiser.There are autocrats and autocrats, and one of the most interesting of them all is as far from Russia as is the corner of Broadway and Twenty-third street, this city. She, for this is a woman, is down on the payroll of the Standard Theater as Frederica Nelson, the comely colored girl in charge of the ladies’ rooms.
J. M. Hill is the reputed boss there, but “Fred,” as everybody about the place calls her, is the autocrat. The scrub women, messenger boys and office boys are made to realize it. “Fred” runs the elevator, along with attending to some 10 or 20 other matters, most of them self-imposed duties.
2-: From The Norfolk Landmark (Norfolk, Virginia, USA) of Saturday 7th May 1904 [page 1, column 1]:
Male Employees of Store Object to Young Girl Boss.
Special to The Landmark.Richmond, May 6.—[…] A small strike is in progress here. The cause is one of the most unique in the history of the city. Some days ago S. S. Resendorf, manager of the Southern Stamp and Stationery Company, placed Miss Ray Hentshel, a young lady employe, in charge of the business, with authority to discharge and employ clerks as she saw fit. Among the clerks are men of family. They wrote a letter to Mr. Rosendorf saying they were willing to work under any man he might select, but that they would not submit to be ruled by a woman. Mr. Rosendorf replied that his plans had been made and would not be changed. Thereupon all the clerks walked out. Miss Hentshel still holds the fort.
3-: From the Indianapolis Morning Star (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) of Sunday 6th November 1904 [page 9, column 4]—although, here, the title is perhaps to be read as girl (is) boss-stonemason:
GIRL BOSS STONEMASON
SHE HAS 20 MEN UNDER HER
Pluck of Miss Helene Preda of Hungary Is an Example to Her Sex All Over the World
[By Star Special Service.]BUDAPEST, Hungary, Nov. 5.—[…] Miss Helene Preda […] set about to learn the trade of a stonemason and within a few months had mastered it. Starting out to find employment in her new field, she went first to the village mayor and secured a permit.
The case was so novel the official called an architect and told him of it. The architect telephoned to the young woman to come to his office. On her arrival he was much astonished to see a well-dressed, refined looking girl.
An hour later she was bossing the construction of a stone wall around a large private park, and had twenty men under her.
4-: From E. H. Taylor, Jr., Is Defeated For Representative, published in The Daily News-Democrat (Paducah, Kentucky, USA) of Wednesday 16th November 1904 [page 1, column 3]:
Frankfort, Ky., Nov. 16.—L. F. Johnson defeats Col. E. H. Taylor, Jr., for representative by seven votes. […]
[…] A report was […] circulated on Col. Taylor that he employed a negro girl boss over white girls working in his offices.
5-: From the Sierra County Advocate (Hillsboro, New Mexico, USA) of Friday 13th December 1907 [page 1, column 3]:
The Girl Boss.
Although there are probably many men who will take exception to the statement of that a Frenchman who, after visiting this country, said, “Women are the bosses of America,” there is nevertheless a great deal of truth in his declaration. That isn’t the ambition of most women, however. Still, they have proved on numerous occasions that they are equally as well qualified to boss as men are. Miss Edith Hemphill, of Allegheney, is one who has demonstrated that fact by successfully bossing 172 men and supervising the details in the distribution of mail to a population of 275,000. […] Miss Hemphill received her education in a business school […] Miss Hemphill explains her success as being due in a large measure to not being afraid to work hard. She says she knew she was able to do it, so she did. That’s the secret of being a successful boss in any kind of work—know you can do it and then do it.
6-: From When Girl Strikers Fought Girl Millionaire, published in The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) of Thursday 10th February 1910 [page 1, column 3]:
Wheeling, W. Va., February 10.—Two hundred and fifty gritty girls […] have won their strike at the Pollack stogie factories.
[…] They asked a half-cent increase or else that an expert weigher, discharged, be reinstated. Miss Gussie Pollack, head of the $7,000,000 concern, has now ordered the weigher taken back.
[…]
Once during the strike Miss Martha Majors, aged 19, leader of the girl strikers, confronted Miss Gussie, not much older, but the employer.
The girl striker and the girl boss faced each other.
7-: From The Owensboro Inquirer (Owensboro, Kentucky, USA) of Thursday 19th January 1911 [page 1, column 2]:
New Jersey’s First Girl “Boss.”
Miss Ida Phillips, stenographer to Governor Fort of New Jersey, was the undisputed ruler of that state for a term of twelve hours. Miss Phillips’ promotion to power was brought about by a peculiarity in the constitution of the state which closed the term of Governor Fort at midnight on January 16th and made provision for the inauguration of Governor-elect Wilson on the following day at 12 o’clock.
These constitutional directions left a hiatus of twelve hours when New Jersey was without a governor, and as Miss Phillips was the ranking clerk in the governor’s office she assumed the responsibilities.
8-: From The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington, USA) of Thursday 17th August 1911 [page 3, column 4]:
WELLESLEY GIRL RUNS BIG RANCH
[…]KANSAS CITY.—Miss Eleanor Hall, daughter of Nathan Hall, […] asked her father, a retired ranchman and wealthy in the possession of numerous Kansas City as well as Texas properties, if she and her two younger brothers might have the ranch at Richland Springs. Sure she might—if she would conduct its affairs herself. Mr. Hall long had been looking for a competent manager for the place.
[…]
[…] There was a creek which ran through the 4000 acres of the Hall range and furnished the sole source of water supply for the horses and mules. It was long known in that locality that this “branch” dried up occasionally and was always undependable […].Girl Boss Remembered.
One day, however, Miss Hall remembered the trick of Richland creek. […]
In a day or two several wheel scrapers arrived at the ranch and began damming up the narrow valley of the Richland creek. It was an expensive job, but it quadrupled the value of the range. It caught up the waters of the lazy flowing branch into a vast reservoir several hundreds yards wide and half a mile long.
9-: From a review of Cowboy’s Girl, a play produced at the Empire Theatre, Saskatoon, published in The Daily Phœnix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) of Friday 19th January 1912 [page 3, column 5]:
Mr. Clute had the role of the ranch foreman and was the supreme lover of the pretty girl-boss of the Lazy Y. […] Miss Doris Grey, the bright, girlish ranch-owner […] offered splendid support.
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