A low self-expectation leads women to treat earning a living itself as sufficient achievement.

Evidence

Because of this defeatist attitude, the woman easily settles for a mediocre success; she does not dare to aim higher. Starting out in her job with a superficial education, she very quickly curtails her ambitions. She often considers the very fact of earning her own living a great enough feat; like so many others, she could have entrusted her future to a man; to continue to want her independence she needs to take pride in her effort, but it exhausts her. It seems to her she has done enough just in choosing to do something. “That’s not so bad for a woman,” she thinks. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1939

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘immanence vs transcendence’ apparatus core to Beauvoir’s existentialist-feminist framework. — connects to: Uniqueness as a token woman substitutes for genuine ambition in professions.; Low expectations for girls produce their own inferiority complex — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1938

Broader Connections

• Uniqueness as a token woman substitutes for genuine ambition in professions. #complicates (0.78)
• Low expectations for girls produce their own inferiority complex #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1938