Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives
Books / Paperback
Books › Social Science › Women's Studies
ISBN: 0679758887 / Publisher: Anchor, February 2005
An analysis of ambition as it is experienced by women draws on case studies and the experiences of accomplished women to explore the ways in which women are conditioned to avoid recognition in favor of more traditional roles, challenging theories about the state of the mind and the needs of men. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.
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Despite the huge advances women have made in recent decades, their ambitions are still undermined in subtle ways. Parents, teachers, bosses, and institutions all give less encouragement to women than men, and women still grow up believing that they must defer to men in order be seen as feminine. If their ambition does survive into adulthood, too often those ambitions must be downsized or abandoned to accommodate “wifely” duties of household chores and child care. As a result, women--unlike men–continually have to re-shape their goals and expectations. Yet expressing ambition, pursuing it, and getting recognition for one’s accomplishments is critical to identity and happiness. In this groundbreaking work, Anna Fels draws on extensive research and years of her psychiatriac practice to offer an original and deeply useful examination of ambition in women’s lives. In the process, she illuminates just what is necessary for women to articulate--and fulfill--their dreams.
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