The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence by Colette Dowling 1982

A personal exploration of dependence and the desire for autonomy

Vintage Fair Condition - Covers soiled and rubbed, corners creased, rear publisher sticker. Pages heavily browned, prelims foxed, text margins spotted. No annotations. Published 1982.

Colette Dowling examines the tension between wanting independence and longing to be protected, drawing on personal experience and the perspectives she gathers around it. Her argument considers how expectations about women’s lives can shape ambition, relationships, and the choices people believe are available to them. The book brings emotional experience into a wider discussion of social conditioning, asking why confidence and capability may coexist with fears about acting alone. The Cinderella Complex presents Dowling’s influential interpretation of these questions in the context of its time. It offers readers a provocative work to consider when exploring the history of ideas about women, dependence, and the continuing effort to define a self-directed life.