Double Bind: Women on Ambition
Longlisted for the 800-CEO-READ Award for Business Book of the Year

Breaking the last feminist taboo—once and for all.

Even as toweringly successful women from Gloria Steinem to Beyoncé embrace the word "feminism," the word "ambition," for many, remains loaded with ambivalence. Women who are naturally driven and goal-oriented shy away from it. They’re loath to see themselves—or be seen by others—as aggressive or, worst of all, as a bitch. Double Bind could not come at a more urgent time, a necessary collection that explodes this conflict, examining the concept of female ambition from every angle in essays full of insight, wisdom, humor, and rage.

Perceptively identifying a paradox at the very heart of feminism, editor Robin Romm has marshaled a stunning constellation of thinkers to examine their relationships with ambition with candor, intimacy, and wit. Roxane Gay discusses how race informs and feeds her ambition. Theresa Rebeck takes on Hollywood and confronts her own unquenchable thirst to overcome its sexism. Francine Prose considers the origins of the stigma; Nadia Manzoor discusses its cultural weight. Women who work in fields long-dominated by men—from butchery to tech to dogsledding—weigh in on what it takes to crack that ever-present glass ceiling, and the sometimes unexpected costs of shattering it. The eternally complex questions of aspiration and identity can be made even more treacherous at the dawn of motherhood; Allison Barrett Carter attempts leaning in at home, while Sarah Ruhl tries to uphold her feminist vision within motherhood’s infinite daily compromises.

Taken together, these essays show women from a range of backgrounds and at all stages of their lives and careers grappling with aspiration, failure, achievement, guilt, and, yes, success. Forthright and empowering, Double Bind breaks a long silence, reclaiming "ambition" from the roster of dirty words at last.

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Double Bind: Women on Ambition
Longlisted for the 800-CEO-READ Award for Business Book of the Year

Breaking the last feminist taboo—once and for all.

Even as toweringly successful women from Gloria Steinem to Beyoncé embrace the word "feminism," the word "ambition," for many, remains loaded with ambivalence. Women who are naturally driven and goal-oriented shy away from it. They’re loath to see themselves—or be seen by others—as aggressive or, worst of all, as a bitch. Double Bind could not come at a more urgent time, a necessary collection that explodes this conflict, examining the concept of female ambition from every angle in essays full of insight, wisdom, humor, and rage.

Perceptively identifying a paradox at the very heart of feminism, editor Robin Romm has marshaled a stunning constellation of thinkers to examine their relationships with ambition with candor, intimacy, and wit. Roxane Gay discusses how race informs and feeds her ambition. Theresa Rebeck takes on Hollywood and confronts her own unquenchable thirst to overcome its sexism. Francine Prose considers the origins of the stigma; Nadia Manzoor discusses its cultural weight. Women who work in fields long-dominated by men—from butchery to tech to dogsledding—weigh in on what it takes to crack that ever-present glass ceiling, and the sometimes unexpected costs of shattering it. The eternally complex questions of aspiration and identity can be made even more treacherous at the dawn of motherhood; Allison Barrett Carter attempts leaning in at home, while Sarah Ruhl tries to uphold her feminist vision within motherhood’s infinite daily compromises.

Taken together, these essays show women from a range of backgrounds and at all stages of their lives and careers grappling with aspiration, failure, achievement, guilt, and, yes, success. Forthright and empowering, Double Bind breaks a long silence, reclaiming "ambition" from the roster of dirty words at last.

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Double Bind: Women on Ambition

Double Bind: Women on Ambition

Double Bind: Women on Ambition

Double Bind: Women on Ambition

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Overview

Longlisted for the 800-CEO-READ Award for Business Book of the Year

Breaking the last feminist taboo—once and for all.

Even as toweringly successful women from Gloria Steinem to Beyoncé embrace the word "feminism," the word "ambition," for many, remains loaded with ambivalence. Women who are naturally driven and goal-oriented shy away from it. They’re loath to see themselves—or be seen by others—as aggressive or, worst of all, as a bitch. Double Bind could not come at a more urgent time, a necessary collection that explodes this conflict, examining the concept of female ambition from every angle in essays full of insight, wisdom, humor, and rage.

Perceptively identifying a paradox at the very heart of feminism, editor Robin Romm has marshaled a stunning constellation of thinkers to examine their relationships with ambition with candor, intimacy, and wit. Roxane Gay discusses how race informs and feeds her ambition. Theresa Rebeck takes on Hollywood and confronts her own unquenchable thirst to overcome its sexism. Francine Prose considers the origins of the stigma; Nadia Manzoor discusses its cultural weight. Women who work in fields long-dominated by men—from butchery to tech to dogsledding—weigh in on what it takes to crack that ever-present glass ceiling, and the sometimes unexpected costs of shattering it. The eternally complex questions of aspiration and identity can be made even more treacherous at the dawn of motherhood; Allison Barrett Carter attempts leaning in at home, while Sarah Ruhl tries to uphold her feminist vision within motherhood’s infinite daily compromises.

Taken together, these essays show women from a range of backgrounds and at all stages of their lives and careers grappling with aspiration, failure, achievement, guilt, and, yes, success. Forthright and empowering, Double Bind breaks a long silence, reclaiming "ambition" from the roster of dirty words at last.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781631491214
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date: 04/11/2017
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Robin Romm is the author of The Mother Garden and The Mercy Papers. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, O, The Oprah Magazine, and elsewhere. She teaches at Warren Wilson College and lives in Portland, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Introduction Robin Romm

Ebenezer Laughs Back: Confessions of a Workaholic Pam Houston 5

What Came Next Theresa Rebeck 19

On Impractical Urges Ayana Mathis 31

Girl with Knife Camas Davis 45

Reply All Robin Romm 61

Nature and Nurture Marcia Chatelain 74

Crying in the Bathroom Erika L. Sánchez 82

Both Yael Chatav Schonbrun 95

No Happy Harmony Elizabeth Corey 107

Leaning In, Leaning Out Allison Barrett Carter 120

The Price of Black Ambition Roxane Gay 129

Escape Velocity Claire Vaye Watkins 139

Single Lead Blair Braverman 153

The Chang Girls Lan Samantha Chang 162

Goal Your Own Way Evany Thomas 171

Astronauts Nadia P. Manzoor 184

The Snarling Girl: Notes on Ambition Elisa Albert 193

Ambitchin' Julie Holland 213

Original Sin Francine Prose 225

Know Your Place Molly Ringwald 233

Ambition: The Clifhe Notes Joan Leegant 240

Doubly Denied Cristsna Henríquez 253

Becoming Meta Hawa Allan 265

Letters to My Mother and Daughters on Ambition Sarah Ruhl 281

Contributor Biographies 293

Acknowledgments 303

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