Female Ambition - Hillary Clinton

I just read an interesting article in Newsweek which spoke about how being the “good girl” at work can hold a woman back.

The tagline for the accompanying slideshow is interesting – “11 Powerful Women Who Make Men–and Other Women–Squirm.” If you’re a powerful woman, you don’t just make men uncomfortable. Many other women are just as intimidated by your success because they’re not used to seeing such unabashed confidence and drive.

I am personally very intimidated by women around my age who are at the top of their game, and often become unreasonably jealous. I hold them very highly in my head and wonder why I’m not at their level even though I know I succeed in areas they may not.

But I have absolutely no problem with powerful older females, like the ones demonstrated in the slideshow – Anna Wintour, Martha Stewart, etc. I applaud their achievements and the professional barriers they’ve broken. I tell myself that if these older women could do it, there’s hope for me yet.

My jealously of females my own age who are doing great things is clearly illogical – I should be cheering them on because we are on the same team! This is an issue I’m clearly going to have to work on…