When Nicki Minaj paired two words masked by gender based characteristics together she created a powerful expression which has come into pop-culture as a female slogan.

“Boss Ass Bitch.”

Clearly both B-Words lie on opposite sides of the gender spectrum, but make a confusing case in deciphering the differences between themselves in the corporate world.

Society has placed many genderizing characteristics on both sexes deeming men who exhibit female tendencies weak and vulnerable, and women who react based on pure emotions are abrasive. Those men will be weeded out of natural selection as they may not be able to fend for themselves in hardships, while women who reveal characteristics typical of men and uncommon amongst women, like anger and assertiveness, are accused of PMSing.

Both mortifying and vexing is the need to defend one’s own biological tendencies, specifically those pertaining to the menstrual cycle. Yet, when it’s been confirmed that Mother Nature’s wrath is not expected in our underwear, women are labeled “emotionally unstable.”

Since when were premenstrual hormone fluctuations and warranted feelings of fury and indignation deemed mutually exclusive?

And so, women have developed a learned tendency to act stoic which yet again, leads to further accusation; “she’s a bitch.”

But what if she’s actually not a bitch? And what if she’s just doing her job and keeping the work place in order? The pencil skirt and heals speak to females who have become high-level executives in once circumscribed male roles of leadership positions. The question begs the discrepancies between being a boss and being a bitch.

The CFO of my first ever corporate gig happened to be both B-Words, she was the HBIC; Head Bitch In Charge. She came to work each day with her breasts fully exposed and pushed up to her chin, nonverbally and forcefully taunting female employees who lacked in the cleavage department. She screamed in the faces of her staff while they were on the phone with clients. “I can’t tell if your dress is ugly, or if you just have small boobs,” she said to one intern.

There was no denying that my former boss dragged a mean streak all over the office like the toilet paper that was often trailing by the soles of her heels. She sat in the corner of the office, but was in perfect ear shot of every cubicle, chiming in to the conversations that were of interest to her yet chastising her employees for bringing personal matters into the office at other times. Her husband, company CEO, had a private office across the hall and often stayed late to have sex with his wife, who would brag about whose desk the two had shagged on the night before. Gross. My boss demanded can after can of Diet Coke from her secretary; the fridge was fully stocked. She yelled her lunch orders through a closed door, and rarely included a please or a thank you.

I found that the personal relationships that my former employer was trying to maintain with her staff was directly interfering with their corporate performances, and frequently jeopardized the company’s retention rates. One girl quit unannounced after just the first day.

And then of course there’s the other side of the coin, in which another former boss of mine wasn’t much of a boss at all. For some pocket money in college I worked as a freelance dancer. Not like the hot, go-go dancers at the clubs, and not like a stripper on a pole, but at bar and bat mitzvahs with 13 year-olds that have too much sexual energy leaking from their acne-covered faces. I’m not quite sure how this boss of mine even landed herself in the managerial role because she could be molded in every which way that her employers wished, some of whom took advantage of her leniency and walked up and down her spine. She stood against the walls of the venue and hesitantly asked questions, all of which should have been in command form.

“So should we do a slow song now?” and “Do you want to get the adults dancing?” were only some of the ambiguous phrases that were not helping this woman prove her authority to me.

The difficulty that many females in leadership positions face comes down to properly balancing boldness and tenderness, both innate characteristics of a woman. In Rudyard Kipling’s 1911 poem,

“The Female of the Species,” he makes the case that women are “more deadly than the male” because of feminine, biological virtues.

The 11th stanza reads:

“Unprovoked and awful charges– even so the she-bear fights, “Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons — even so the cobra bites,…”

Kipling revealed the vicious tendencies of women, who sometimes will undermine others with incisive words in an attempt to climb to the top of the social and corporate ladders. Though females should have an obligation to protect one another, as no man quite understands the liberation that comes with unhooking a bra at the end of the day, or the absolute need to hit the bottom of a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, some women can get carried away with the power that they hold.

Certain female bosses might execute personal attacks on the private lives of her peasants as she sits high and mighty on her throne of monocracy, making it easy for employees to “chuck the deuce up” and start on their journeys to a different job with a healthier atmosphere. But other women can make for fabulous mentors by providing constructive criticism while recognizing the valuable contributions of her staff to the company.

Add one last B-Word to the list.

A Boss Ass Bitch uses her brain instead of holding feminine powers against her inferiors. She utilizes her mental strengths to help others and employs innate characteristics to understand and problem solve while protecting the employees, without the use of cleavage. She is caring and she is kind, but she is firm and she is fair. And people love her, because she’s a Boss Ass Bitch.