We told Z gen to hustle…and then pulled the carpet out

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Generation Z pressure. Correctly.

For years, we have told this generation that they are entrepreneurs. run. Create your own opportunities in a gig economy that promises flexibility and freedom. We praise their innovation, their digital destiny, and their refusal to accept the traditions that had been burned by previous generations 9-5 grinds.

Then, as they start building the business we encourage them to start, we pull the carpet out from underneath.

The latest tariffs imposed by the current government on the current government are more than just abstract policy decisions. They have wreak havoc on young entrepreneurs and we have spent ten years encouraging “destroying” traditional career paths. Two-thirds of small business owners say tariffs hurt their companies. They face numerous challenges as they include slowing sales, higher raw material prices, limited leverage in negotiations with suppliers, and uncertainty in pricing.

Feminists’ bets are even higher

But it’s more than just an economic story: it’s feminist. Gen Z women, especially BIPOC women, have been navigating the systemic barriers of entrepreneurs. They deal with the additional burden of unpaid care disproportionately falling on women. They promote workplace discrimination, making traditional employment paths feel impossible.

So they did what we told them to do: They were busy. They started the Etsy store and consulting business. They became freelance graphic designers and launched a sustainable fashion brand. Generation Z entrepreneurs are proving their dedication, with 73% reporting that their business is their primary source of income.

Now, small businesses may have to pay more for their overseas products and parts due to tariffs, and two-thirds of micro-small businesses have not even begun planning for this new reality. For young women who create business with minimal capital, these sudden cost increases are not only challenging, but may be the end of business.

Commitment and reality

We sold Gen Z with entrepreneurship as liberation. You don’t have glass ceilings when you are CEO. There is no workplace harassment when you work for yourself. There is no gender pay gap when setting rates. It is feminist empowered with a millennial pink Instagram aesthetic.

But liberation requires infrastructure. It requires predictable supply chains, affordable materials and economic stability. Tariffs can undermine the stable supply chains small businesses rely on, making imported goods more expensive or difficult to obtain.

For Gen Z women who run a small jewelry business, the sudden tariff increase means her material costs could soar overnight. For graduates who have recently started using a sustainable clothing line, import taxes can price her from the market she has built on years. These are more than just business challenges; it is the collapse of our promised alternative career paths that will be different, better, and fairer.

When the “girl boss” encounters economic reality

The cruel irony is that Gen Z women embraced entrepreneurship in part because traditional employment is confused by them. They watch older women fight for equal salaries, fight workplace discrimination, and strive to balance career development with family responsibilities. Entrepreneurship looks like a way to choose these systems entirely.

However, the option can only work if there is actually a functional alternative system. For small businesses relying on overseas suppliers or imported goods, tariffs mean higher costs and smaller profits, which makes creativity and strategic thinking crucial to survive only in daily operations.

Now, young women who are doing business with thin razor edges are squeezed out from all sides. They are competing with mature companies with resources that increase costs, while facing economic pressures that make them first seek alternatives to traditional employment.

Default mode

This tariff crisis reflects a broad pattern of how society treats young women’s economic aspirations. We encourage their ambitions and then undermine the conditions that make them successful. We celebrate their entrepreneurship and then create a policy environment that enables established businesses rather than messy startups.

We tell them to be independent and then make independence economically impossible. We praise their innovation and then destroy their innovative market. We assure them that they can build something different and then make sure that the traditional system they escape is still the only viable option.

Why Feminist Readers Should Care

The tariff crisis not only ruins business; it ruins the entire narrative. Prove that individual solutions cannot overcome systemic problems. When the economic base keeps moving under your feet, tell women to “rely” or “female bosses” that their equal approach won’t work.

The solution is not to give up entrepreneurship, nor to tell Gen Z women to traditional employment that may not be able to serve their traditional employment better. Instead, we need to acknowledge that individual busyness cannot overcome systemic economic instability. We need to support small businesses’ policies, rather than celebrating their speech while undermining their foundations.

We need to stop viewing economic inequality as a problem that women can solve through personal efforts and start seeing it as a structural problem that requires systematic solutions. We need to recognize that when we encourage marginalized people to “create opportunities”, it is our responsibility to ensure that these opportunities exist.

Z women believe entrepreneurs hope because they have to do so. Traditional systems do not serve them, so they build new systems. At least what we can do is not destroy what they build, especially when we are the ones who tell them to build it first. Their pressure is more than just tariffs, supply chains, or profit margins. It’s about a narrative collapse that offers hope for something different.