When young women get called bossy, it's often because they're trying to exercise power without status. It's not a problem that they're being dominant; the backlash arises because they're overstepping their status.
Adam Grant
If we want girls to receive positive reinforcement for early acts of leadership, let's discourage bossy behavior along with banning bossy labels. That means teaching girls to engage in behaviors that earn admiration before they assert their authority.
My friends say that at school I was quite bossy. I still am a bit bossy, but a nice bossy. I've always been very strong-minded, even as a little girl. But I'm a great friend, and I've never been in a fight in my life. I think it's nice to be nice, especially because I've never been scared to stick up for myself. I'm not a shrinking violet.
Alesha Dixon
I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody's passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn't mind leading.
Amy Poehler
Words like 'bossy,' 'shrill,' and 'moody' are used to describe women who speak up at work and give voice to their passion - but I believe this negative commentary is meant to keep critical thinkers quiet.
Ana Kasparian
My father had all these great names for our cows. Bossy and Daisy and Petunia and Turnip. One of my jobs was to round up the cows before milking. I'd go out back with the dog and bring them in.
Bobbie Ann Mason
Using the word 'bossy' for girls can be quite harmful. What is that saying - that being focused, being assertive, being the boss has a negative attribute? And I have heard that term associated more with women than with men. 'He's so bossy' - you don't hear that. It's a very subtle thing.
Bryce Dallas Howard
My generation of bossy, confident, baby-boom women were something brand new in history. Our energy and assertiveness weren't created by Betty Friedan, unknown before her 1963 book, or by Gloria Steinem, whose political activism, as even the Lifetime profile admitted, did not begin until 1969.
Camille Paglia
I have this idea of myself as this quiet, observant, thoughtful child, which my parents roundly contradict. They claim that I was loud and bossy and dancing all the time.
Carrie Coon
I was always bossy as a kid. I made my friends do shows that I wrote and would take them on tour from house to house.
Casey Nicholaw
I remember growing up and feeling all the time not pretty enough, too rude, too loud, taking too much space because precisely I wanted to maybe be bossy and loud and unapologetic and not really smooth all the time, and those were not really qualities that were valued for me.
Christine and the Queens
You come across words all the time that are everyday sexism. I was described as 'competently bossy' and 'bossily competent' by a male journalist, and I thought, 'Gosh, 'bossy' is never used of a man.'
Clare Balding
I remember, when I was 6 years old, we were having an event at school where different dolls were on display. I said that the tallest doll needed to be on the end, and my little friend said to me, 'Oh, you're just so bossy.' I remember thinking that wasn't a good thing. But I kept insisting the doll had to be on the end anyway.
Condoleezza Rice
I can't tell you how many times I heard from younger sisters that their older sisters were bossy and judgmental.
Deborah Tannen
I was very keen. I was super-eager to please and be good. And I was always kind of bossy.
Emma Watson
I'm the oldest of three girls. My sisters say I can be bossy.
Gayle King
Sometimes it's isolating, but just being in the music industry that is just dominated by men, I think it means I have to be comfortable and confident in myself and not really care that people think I'm bossy and opinionated and also try and balance that energy.
Goapele
I'm not quite that difficult, even though maybe I'm a little bit bossy. But you know, in order to get things done, you do have to be a little bit bossy sometimes or tell people what you really want. Otherwise, things just don't get done, do they?
Heidi Klum
I'm a boss by nature. I'm bossy. I'm not imperious, but I don't really want people to curtsy low before me and back out of rooms, but I do like to run things.
Helen Hayes
Keeping a feminine approach is vital - men hate bossy females.
Ida Lupino
Even back in elementary school, I was a leader, but a leader who didn't know how to channel my leadership skills in a constructive way. When I was younger, it probably came out as being more of a bossy little kid.
Saudi Arabia is, of course, the keystone of OPEC. Saudi Arabia has had the distinction of remaining stable through all the escalating tumult of recent decades, reliably pumping out its roughly 10 million barrels a day like Bossy the cow in America's oil import barn.
I don't consider myself bossy, but I do know what I want. You know, I have a gut feeling about a piece of material, but I've never envisioned myself as the director on top of the hill with a megaphone in my hand, screaming at 1,000 extras.
In real life, I tend to yell at people a lot. Not because I'm bossy or mean, but because I'm frustrated.
My older sister is bossy, my brother is a stirrer and me - well, I am perfect!
I would hate people to think bossy is all I can do.
If you really want to get over someone or something in your life, I suggest you throw on some Ivy Queen. She will have you feeling extra bossy.
For me, saying 'I'm bossy' is a cute, tongue-in-cheek way of saying that I'm in control of my life.
My favorite personal hockey moment was probably when Mike Bossy scored fifty goals in fifty games. He was the first one to do it since Rocket Richard. I was young when it happened, but I remember it very distinctly.
I'm completely in charge of my own life now. Sometimes there's no one there to slap me on the hand and say: 'Stop being so bullish and bossy,' and things like that.
I remember playing in my mom's closet with Kim as little girls - we had this game we played, I was Donna Karan, and she was my assistant, and I was really bossy.
It's not a 'sexy' position, being the producer. You have to be very bossy. You have to be very aggressive.
I have a lot of opinions, and I'm pretty bossy.
My mom had an audition for a commercial when I was about two and a half, and I ran in crying and interrupted her. They thought I was cute so they offered me a commercial role. My mom was skeptical and a bit nervous about the child actor thing, but I was extremely bossy and convinced them I wanted to try it.
I was the big, bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous, and anxious to be a saint - a settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith.
I was an optimistic person, really bossy, gregarious and outspoken.
Women get labeled 'bossy' when it's like, 'Maybe I'm a leader. Maybe I just know what I want.'
I swear I'm not bossy in any other aspect of my life - it's just on set.
In fact, it works the other way: A government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class and those who hope to join it.
Am I bossy? Absolutely. I don't like to lose, and if I'm told 'no,' then I find another way to get my 'yes.' But I'm a loyal person.
I see it every day: People trying to create a home that somebody else tells them they should have. I don't care if it's a magazine or a bossy friend - when somebody says, 'This is what's elegant, this is what's trendy,' if it doesn't represent you, you're not going to be happy.
I do confess to being the exasperated, bossy, know-it-all, overachieving big sister.
We call our little girls bossy. Go to a playground; little girls get called bossy all the time - a word that's almost never used for boys - and that leads directly to the problems women face in the workforce.
Women have made tons of progress. But we still have a small percentage of the top jobs in any industry, in any nation in the world. I think that's partly because from a very young age, we encourage our boys to lead and we call our girls bossy.
Our discomfort with female leadership runs deep. We call little girls bossy. We never really call little boys bossy, because a boy is expected to lead, so it doesn't surprise or offend.
I absolutely loved Tina Fey's 'Bossypants' and didn't want it to end. It's hilarious as well as important. Not only did I laugh on every page, but I was nodding along, highlighting and dog-earing like crazy.
I've always been bossy.
No, you're not allowed to be bossy when you're married. You have to learn compromise, and compassion and patience.
I mean, on the television, I've got to continue to be Star Jones Reynolds. And I enjoy that. But in my real life, I'm a wife now. You can't really be bossy when you're married.
'Bossy' is someone who bosses people around without reason.
