ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the many ways that women in leadership roles, and women who have or seek power, are subjected to extreme strictures and criticism regarding their ambition and empowerment. Harris stresses the implicit and explicit contracts regarding consent, where sexual submission or acquiescence is expected at key developmental moments in a woman’s life – where she is poised to become a leader. It is at these moments that the “entry fee” is exacted, and if not paid, can undermine the most worthy acts of ambition and impact. The case of Claire reflects the incomplete mastery of the social situations in which women may exercise ambitions, and how these fault lines in experience, education, and self-esteem may affect Claire’s determination to rise and thrive in the world. An intergenerational transmission of powerful prohibitions and shame around women’s power and ambition lie at the heart of Claire’s dilemma. Sexuality, excitement and power interweave with uncertainty and shame, the wish to surpass, and fear of outdoing her mother. Claire’s case is a metaphor for all women who wish to achieve success in a society that remains suspicious of women who seek to have impact.
