The psychological need to avoid independence - the "wish to be saved" - seemed to me an important issue, quite probably the most important issue facing women today. We were brought up to depend on a man and to feel naked and frightened without one. We were taught to believe that as women we cannot stand alone, that we are too fragile, too delicate, needful of protection. So that now, in these enlightened days, when our intellects tell us to stand on our own two feet, unresolved emotional issues drag us down.
Colette Dowling, The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence
cinderella-complex, emotional-dependency, feminism, gender-roles, patriarchy, societal-constructs, women