The Career Development of Women: Helping Cinderella Lose Her Complex

Abstract

In the last decade, society has begun to relax its stringent rules for women and accepted a trade-in on their glass slippers for working shoes. For many women the contemplation and act of transition from home to the workplace has been difficult for numerous internal and external reasons. The Cinderella Comp?ex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence (Dowling,,1981) explored these complexities and suggested that women tend to foster, without awareness or intent, their own low self-esteem and dependence. In addition to women’s own negative self-per-ceptions and the conditional acceptance of career women by society, salary discrepancies, occupational segregation, sex-role stereotyping, parental influences, family demands, and dual-career issues have made this transition all the more diffi-cult. The purpose of this article is to describe the current status of women in the workplace, the internal and external variables that are related specifically to the career development of women, and several effective counseling strategies, programs, and resources that might be used in assisting women to overcome barriers in the career development process.

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