Holding back on success for love

IT’S not just a glass ceiling holding women back in the professional world of work these days. 

According to a new study, a fear of being left single and lonely is what stops many women going for it and becoming the next Big Player within their industry.
That’s right! A typical Bridget Jones style life of dinner and a bottle of wine for one is what 50 per cent of women believe might happen to them if they dare to succeed.

The comprehensive study of more than 2,000 women in the US revealed that 42per cent of those surveyed believe that financially independent females are “intimidating to men and often end up alone,” while 31per cent believe they are “hard to relate to and often don’t have many friends.”

Granted… Bridget Jones was no power-woman in the world of publishing and TV reporting and she got her man, but if she had become a top dog in her work, would the movie really have had a different ending? 

Unfortunately in the real world it might just have, with women themselves being their own worst enemy. 

When a women enters a leadership position – like Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer recently did – some women admired her for her take-charge attitude, but many other women criticised her, saying she lacked “positive feminine attributes” (?) or that she was “neglecting” her child.
So where does this bitchy attitude toward successful women stem from? According to this particular survey, it’s a fear of frightening away men and ending up on the shelf. 

According to an author on the subject, even in the 21^st century, many women are still “collaborating with the myth that is the basis for the economic lives of middle-class women: that if they remain ladylike and needy, someone will take care of them.”

The Suffragettes are turning in their grave!

And what’s more, while some men might be threatened by a woman with a higher salary, there are many who are not.  A 2006 survey of men asked them whether financially independent women were “less sexy.” A majority of 78 per cent disagreed. 

Women feel this way, but men don’t. So come on girls, stop holding yourselves back!