You never hear of a bossy boy

I asked DH not to say 'sort it out / get on with it / what are you doing (or similar) woman' to a driver annoying him. He said he would say the same to a man. I agreed, but pointed out that he didn't add 'man' to the sentence.
He agreed, so now he just expresses gender neutral annoyance!

Traditionally it’s a gender thing - boys would be considered ‘good organisers’ - we need to move on a recognise girls are also ‘good organisers’ and not ‘bossy

One of my school reports said "Sodapop is a born leader, unfortunately she leads her class in the wrong direction". Wish I could say I had improved
Oh, that made me laugh, sodapop.

But yes, you are correct, Lucca.

My DD has been described as 'bossy' when she was a child but in fact she is now an excellent delegator, which is just as well
as she has a lot of staff to organise.

Bossy means being acting like a boss, and bosses were almost entirely male.

I am very proud of having been bossy and self-opinionated all my life and I intend to continue to be so.

Not sure about the BOSSY bit. Most women I've ever worked for have been awful, dogmatic, over controlling and interfering .
Give me a man to work for any day. My last boss was wonderful. He'd give me a task to complete and a deadline and let me get on with it, when I retired he said he was sorry I was going as he could always trust me. The nicest thing anyone ever said to me in my long working life.

I have a bossy DGS lol. Aged 3 1/2 and teaches nanny every day

Our great grandson is 2 1/2 and is very bossy, we use the word, my husband often tells people his is a bossy little so and so. So no in our family is it not a boy or girl word its just a word

homefarm

Not sure about the BOSSY bit. Most women I've ever worked for have been awful, dogmatic, over controlling and interfering .
Give me a man to work for any day. My last boss was wonderful. He'd give me a task to complete and a deadline and let me get on with it, when I retired he said he was sorry I was going as he could always trust me. The nicest thing anyone ever said to me in my long working life.

I'll second that homefarm. I worked very happily for my male boss for 18 years. He trusted me to do the job that he was paying me to do, without interference, for almost 2 decades. He retired in February of this year and his job has been taken over by a woman. The endless micro management, "catch up" meetings, daily, weekly, monthly filing of reports, incessant emails, phone calls, text messages...... thank God I've only got to go until April.

I've worked for many people over the years, men and women. Some of the men were proper sh**ts, and so were some of the women.

Its very unfair - and possibly illegal? - to discriminate about who you want to work for on the basis of gender.

Not quite the same strain but I was astonished to read this headline today:
'...now I need sleep, says mother of triplets who led race for vaccine.'

She is Professor Sarah Gilbert, lead researcher of the vaccine development programme, and the triplets were born in 1998.

What a patronising way to identify someone of such stature. Oh, and her husband gave up his job to look after the children allowing her to throw herself into her work.

Actually, I am furious.

I have really started wondering what to call a bossy boy! An interfering know-it-all?

Bossy was certainly only applied to women or girls when I was a child, and it wasn't kindly meant.

Neither was calling a girl a minx or saying she was catty.

None of these were commonly applied to men.

Only women were called shrews or shrewish, few men were every referred to as gossips and who ever heard of a hysterical man?

The description of little girls telling on boys for doing things they weren't meant to, rang a bell with me. It goes on right through junior school too.

Why, I wonder?

Its very unfair - and possibly illegal? - to discriminate about who you want to work for on the basis of gender.

Had I, or homefarm said that all women were bossy micro managers who won't let you get on with your job, you'd have a fair point Alegrias2. But that's not what was said is it? We said that the women we had experienced working for were bossy micro managers who won't let us get on with our jobs. You presumed too much.

Those pesky 22 year olds waking up in the night wanting a drink of water or because they’ve wet the bed and there she was with a vaccine to develop. BTW a little while ago she was interviewed on The Life Scientific - I’ll see if it’s still on catch up. I don’t remember the triplets being mentioned though - certainly not headlined

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mj18

Here it is - worth a listen.

Alegrias2

I've worked for many people over the years, men and women. Some of the men were proper sh**ts, and so were some of the women.

Its very unfair - and possibly illegal? - to discriminate about who you want to work for on the basis of gender.

You are not serious?
Surely those in a position to choose between job offers still have the right within law to exercise that choice?
What criteria would you suggest instead? Surely not just salary? Those who say they would never work for a woman/man only have themselves to blame if their career turns out to be less than stellar.
???

Whilst I don't like Priti Patel, or her politics, I do think the recent accusations of bullying are suspect. The civil servants who resigned are middle aged white men, and the way they spoke reeked of resentment and feeling hard done by. As a woman, and a woman of colour, she has had a lot of prejudice to contend with over the years. If she had been a man, would she have been pulled up for shouting, swearing or demanding people just did their jobs?? I didn't read any evidence of people saying she'd sworn directly at them. I suspect if she'd been a man, she would have been described as robust, determined and expecting people to be on their game. Women have a long way to go to be judged for their skills and the merit of their work. So instead of people telling little girls they are "bossy" they should be congratulated for being organised, forthright and creative.

Chewbacca

^Its very unfair - and possibly illegal? - to discriminate about who you want to work for on the^ basis of gender.

Had I, or homefarm said that all women were bossy micro managers who won't let you get on with your job, you'd have a fair point Alegrias2. But that's not what was said is it? We said that the women we had experienced working for were bossy micro managers who won't let us get on with our jobs. You presumed too much.

Here's a direct quote from *Homefarm's" post: Most women I've ever worked for have been awful, dogmatic, over controlling and interfering .
Give me a man to work for any day.

I'll put this bit twice Give me a man to work for any day. So, on the basis of the bosses Homefarm has had, she has decided that women are bad bosses. Try replacing "women" with "people of colour" and "man" with "a white person" and see how that sounds.

I'm not the one doing the presuming.

Take it any way you like Alegria2! I'm quite happy to state that, throughout my 50 year career, I have enjoyed working men, more than I have enjoyed working for a woman. And the reason for that is because, in my experience, men have been more laid back, more trusting, more willing to delegate. The women I have worked for have, in my experience, micro managed, changed their minds about what they need or expect and are less trusting. You can swap and change any of these words to suit your agenda; but you will not change my opinion which is based on my experience.

Never hear of a bossy boy?

No such nonsense in our family. We tell DGS3 regularly not to be so bossy. I’d say the male equivalent of drama queen is drama llama, blossoming - he gets that as well.

DGS is a drama whatever. King?

I wondered how long it would take to hear how awful women bosses are .

I have heard this said more than once, and always by women who don't like being managed by other women but happily defer to a man. They perceive women managers as 'bossy' and 'interfering', when they see men doing the same things as 'authoritative' or 'efficient'. Just as has been said on this thread about children - funny that.

DGD got a leadership award from her Army Cadet unit and has gone on to be the Company Sergeant Major for her County. She is a mere 5'2". You don't get to be a leader by just being 'bossy',

MawBe

Alegrias2

I've worked for many people over the years, men and women. Some of the men were proper sh**ts, and so were some of the women.

Its very unfair - and possibly illegal? - to discriminate about who you want to work for on the basis of gender.

You are not serious?
Surely those in a position to choose between job offers still have the right within law to exercise that choice?
What criteria would you suggest instead? Surely not just salary? Those who say they would never work for a woman/man only have themselves to blame if their career turns out to be less than stellar.
???

Well of course I'm serious Maw, I'm a bit shocked actually that anyone is taking the other view. How can it be right for anyone to say they don't want to work for a woman because they had a woman boss before and she was awful?

That's unfair, no question.

Ha ha. When my DGD was 4 at school she was "good at directing play" according to the teacher. Now she is 7 the remark is more tempered - clearly now bossy.