Girlboss is a neologism which denotes a woman "whose success is defined in opposition to the masculine business world in which she swims upstream". She's the confident and capable woman who is successful in her career, or the one who pursues her own ambitions, instead of working for others or otherwise settling in life. Popularised by Sophia Amoruso in her 2014 book Girlboss, the concept's ethos has been described as "convenient incrementalism". The term is conversely used with sarcastic and pejorative undertones, to denote women who attempt to raise their professional lives by practicing the same abusive and materialistic practices found in the patriarchal society.