Lack of self-assurance prevents the self-forgetfulness needed for genuine transcendence.

Evidence

The greatest failure a lack of self-assurance brings about is that the subject cannot forget himself. He does not generously aim for a goal: he tries to prove he is worth what is demanded of him. Throwing oneself boldly toward goals risks setbacks: but one also attains unexpected results; prudence necessarily leads to mediocrity. It is rare to see in the woman a taste for adventure, gratuitous experience, or disinterested curiosity; she seeks “to build a career” the way others construct a happy life; she remains dominated, invested by the male universe, she lacks the audacity to break through the ceiling, she does not passionately lose herself in her projects; she still considers her life an immanent enterprise: she aims not for an object, but through an object for her subjective success. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1939

Categorization

• DEFINE: Spells out the immanence/transcendence distinction in concrete career terms: immanent enterprise aims at subjective success, transcendence through an object.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that boldness toward goals, not prudence, yields unexpected results — and that women’s career caution structurally produces mediocrity — is a dense, counterintuitive synthesis of existentialist ethics and feminist sociology.
• XREF: connects to: The master’s self-certainty remains incomplete because the slave’s recognition is non-essential — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 685; Self-forgetfulness distinguishes love from narcissistic display — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1813; Self-admiration prevents the self-forgetting that artistic transcendence demands. (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-admiration prevents the self-forgetting that artistic transcendence demands. #corroborates (0.92)
• Self-forgetfulness, the prerequisite of great achievement, requires prior self-assurance women lack. #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1939
• Authentic artistry requires self-transcendence, which narcissism precludes #complicates (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1818