Double Bind: Women on Ambition - Softcover

"On one hand, women are told to claim their seat at the table and run the world. On the other, society still synonymizes female ambition with bitchiness. Essays by nimble thinkers from Roxane Gay to Molly Ringwald explore and dismantle this maddening paradox." -- O, The Oprah Magazine "Ambition will always be complicated for women, and not just because of external impediments: it is an imperfect drive, enacted in imperfect circumstances, that inevitably leads to imperfect things. The more compelling essays in Double Bind address this head on." -- Jia Tolentino - NewYorker.com "Illuminating . . . . 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." -- Publishers Weekly "Women today have been told that they can `have it all,' but novelist and essayist Romm presents a collection of essays that reveals that the reality is much more complex. . . . Raw, frank, and utterly relatable, this collection is a must-read." -- Kristine Huntley - Booklist (starred review) "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." -- Kirkus Reviews "The animating ethos of Double Bind is that there is soft political power in the discussions it offers-in stories that are both intimate and scalable. The book is dedicated to giving voice to a problem, thus humanizing it-and thus, also, productively re-complicating it." -- Megan Garber - Atlantic.com "This vital book is full of the true, brave voices of women who've accomplished great things despite living in a culture that pays lip service to the notion of women's full humanity but still does so much to hold us back-including, not incidentally, teaching us to hate and doubt ourselves. Now more than ever, these stories need to be read." -- Emily Gould, author of Friendship "I read this book from cover to cover on two plane flights, and I instantly felt welcomed into my tribe of women struggling with ambition. Some of these women want ambition; some do not. Some are polite and demur in their expressions of ambition; others are ballsy (!) and forward. Some of the women feel supported in their pursuit of ambition; others struggle alone. Listening to the voices of all these women, I felt embraced and understood." -- Kara Cooney, author of The Woman Who Would Be King "Robin Romm has assembled a terrific group of writers to explore an essential and durable topic. Double Bind is always engaging." -- Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings "Daring, wonderfully readable, and packed with truth. Double Bind is a work of courage and ferocious honesty. A book to inspire us now and the generations of ambitious women to come." -- Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir and Crescent "Wonderful, readable stories that are as complex and compelling as their authors. Double Bind raises as many questions as it provides answers, but they are questions that women and men with wives, sisters, and daughters should be pondering." -- Anne Marie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family "In essays that are bold, absorbing, insightful, and wise, the writers in Double Bind explore the complicated realities of what it means to be an ambitious woman today. I was enthralled by this important book, and moved too. I want to press it into the hands of everyone I know and say, Read it: the truth is inside." -- Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things

"A work of courage and ferocious honesty" (Diana Abu-Jaber), Double Bind could not come at a more urgent time. Even as major figures from Gloria Steinem to Beyonce embrace the word "feminism," the word "ambition" remains loaded with ambivalence. Many women see it as synonymous with strident or aggressive, yet most feel compelled to strive and achieve-the seeming contradiction leaving them in a perpetual double bind. Ayana Mathis, Molly Ringwald, Roxane Gay, and a constellation of "nimble thinkers . . . dismantle this maddening paradox" (O, The Oprah Magazine) with candor, wit, and rage. Women who have made landmark achievements in fields as diverse as law, dog sledding, and butchery weigh in, breaking the last feminist taboo once and for all. "Both intimate and scalable" (Atlantic.com), Double Bind finally seizes "ambition" from the roster of dirty words.