There is also the “likability trap” to talk about the challenges female leaders face by having to prove they are tough and likable at once. Similarly, a “double-bind” is when women are disliked for being direct and decisive, but are not seen as leaders when nice and nurturing.

And there’s the “motherhood penalty,” for the disadvantages, financial and otherwise, specific to mothers who work outside the home (as relative to their childless peers).

Why is this generation of influential women seeking different language to express themselves?

“Words have their moments, especially colloquialisms,” Robin Lakoff, whose 1975 book, “Language and Woman’s Place,” helped create the field of gender linguistics, told Bennett. “Often, after a word or phrase gets a lot of use, people simply stop using it — because we like to sound original and this one seems tired.”

But perhaps it’s about more than words seeming tired. It’s about a new breed of women choosing terms that better capture the complexity of their experiences.

Recently, Bennett told me she saw Oprah Winfrey speak at a conference about women’s empowerment. “Glass ceiling” was nowhere to be heard, but Winfrey did use phrases like “rock the boat,” “scrap the rules” and “reinventing the game.”

In a political period like no other — with more women in power than ever and a record-breaking number of women seeking the presidency — the game is indeed being reinvented, stride by stride and word by word.

I want to hear from you. What phrases, newer or older, do you rely on to describe the challenges of your identity? Email me at dearmaya@nytimes.com.