Skip to content

Quotes from The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence — Colette Dowling

born 1938 United States

← All quotes by Colette Dowling

5 quotes

Males are educated for independence from the day they are born.

The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence (1981)

Only after she begins to disengage from her belief in her own helplessness can she break out of the vicious cycle of dependency and its brutal effect in her life.

The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence (1981)

The woman who has sprung free has emotional mobility. She is able to move toward the things that are satisfying to her and away from those that are not. She is free, also, to succeed.

The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence (1981)

[Women] were not trained for freedom at all, but for its categorical opposite—dependency.

The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence (1981)

Lack of confidence leads us into the dark waters of envy. We see men are functioning without hang-ups—and like girls who envy the unfettered freedom of older brothers, we find it easier to focus on how "lucky" the men are and how "unlucky" we are. Sequestered in an unfair situation, we don't have to do anything about achieving the competence and self-esteem we so admire in others.

The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence (1981)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Colette Dowling (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.