Double Bind

January 9, 2017
In this illuminating collection of essays, editor Romm (The Mercy Papers) brings together the voices of successful professional women, including writers, actors, CEOs, and even a dogsled racer to discuss what it means to be an ambitious woman. Novelist Claire Vaye Watkins touchingly relates a bittersweet return to her hometown of Pahrump, Nev., where she encounters a younger version of herself, “a chronic overachiever... seventeen-year-old college senior... stalking a Fulbright,” in other words a small fish desperate for a bigger pond. Cultural critic Roxane Gay writes about the “whispers of affirmative action” that have followed her through her many achievements. Playwright Sarah Ruhl pens a pair of eloquent and heartfelt epistles, one to her mother and one to her daughters, that explore the difference between having “ambition” and having “a mission.” There are some fairly provocative arguments as well. One woman insists on a biological determinism that makes women nurturers, claiming that feminism’s striving toward political equality is misguided. Another declares that ambition is fundamentally “patriarchal.” A psychologist argues that a woman’s emotions, far from being a detriment in the workplace, actually provide a “vital feedback system that the corporate world needs.” While not an advice book in the traditional form, the experiences recounted and lessons learned seep as if by osmosis, and Romm’s thoughtful aggregation has provided a diversity of voices, including many women of color, first-generation immigrants, and women pursuing careers in male-dominated fields.

February 15, 2017
Romm (MFA Program/Warren Wilson Coll.; The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks, 2009, etc.) gathers essays by successful women about the meaning of ambition in their lives.In this collection, women from professions as varied as teaching, writing, acting, butchering, and dog sledding discuss "the double bind" of female ambition. While many among them have desired success, ambition has been accompanied by ambivalence regarding "impulses and actions...that felt less pretty or tidy than the facade they wanted to project." Clinical psychologist and professor Yael Chatav Schonbrun, for example, focuses on the sacrifices she made to be a researcher and mother. "The concepts of 'ambitious' and 'part time' seem to be a schematic mismatch," she writes, an idea political science professor Elizabeth Corey echoes in her essay, "No Happy Harmony." For her, the work/life double bind for women gives rise to a "conflict in the soul [that] does not go away." Writer Ayana Mathis discusses how, as a black woman, being ambitious is not just a matter of "leaning in." It is about learning how to navigate success that is not a given because of her social and ethnic identity. Actress Molly Ringwald reveals how outspokenness about her desire for stardom garnered criticism to "know [her] place." Hollywood ageism ultimately limited her acting ambitions but also freed her to pursue other interests. By contrast, former magazine editor Camas Davis learned butchery out of a need to reinvent herself after job loss. The fact that "no one had ever bothered to...assess [her] skills," however, made Davis feel like an imposter who could not fully embrace her eventual notoriety. Musher Blair Braverman's relationship to ambition came as a surprise. She writes that although she started out as a dog handler, a desire to win races in a male-dominated sport invigorated her. Romm's collection, which also includes contributions from Roxane Gay, Francine Prose, and others, is a welcome addition to the discourse on a topic that rarely receives the kind of honest and wide-ranging consideration these essays offer. A thoughtfully provocative anthology.

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November 1, 2016
Even as they triumph in business, the professions, and the arts, women often resist being called ambitious, which suggests that they're hard-edged and heartless. Here, women from Cheryl Strayed to Roxane Gay to Molly Ringwald share their feelings on this stressful double bind.

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