Wirefish

“Bossy” per se is not the problem: the problem is that we still see power and authority as male prerogatives, and women who aspire to them as unwomanly, unlikeable, and bad. If “bossy” could actually vanish off the face of the earth, a wealth of similar expressions would fill the gap: ambitious, pushy, shrill, strident, aggressive, manipulative, bitchy – to list a few. Each of these either is not used of men or, when it is, has a positive connotation (as with “ambitious”).

From The Meaning of “Bossy”