Ambitious women: what do you think?

The Australian Prime Minister (middle) with 5 of her senior ministers and the Australian Governor General (3rd from right)

Ambition is defined in the Oxford dictionary as:

''something that you want to do or achieve very much''.

 

We currently have a female Prime Minister, who has appointed five females to senior ministerial roles. We have a female Governor General and in the Territory where I live, we have a female Chief Minister.  These are all very ambitious women.  They would not have risen to these positions without ambition. Whilst the feminist movement is rejoicing at this "achievement" I must admit I do feel more than a little sad  . . . the new Minister for Health has a baby under the age of one.  How can she possibly raise a baby and run the Health portfolio? The truth is, she can't.

What are your first thoughts when you hear that a woman is ambitious?  I think of a woman willing to do almost anything to climb the corporate ladder as high as she can and her family (if she has any) is not her first priority.  She is willing to put in the long hours at the office and will get home late most nights, her life revolves around work. I often find ambitious women "live to work" and are unsympathetic to others (in particular women) who do not share their view on life.  I always think that ambitious women should skip motherhood as their poor children and their husbands are most likely to be badly neglected.

. .  . .  ambition is the great unnamed problem for modern women. We have it in spades as little girls, and even teenagers. But studies show that once we enter workplaces, walk down the aisle and bear children, it fades and chokes. We begin to see it as selfish, or indulgent, and get more criticism than men do for pursuing goals outside the home. (link)

I was interested to read that ambition is declining among working women ''Declining ambition among women is a trend,'' says Ellen Galinsky, the president of the Families and Work Institute, citing a recent study which found that American women aged 35-44 who wanted a job with greater responsibility had dropped from 40 per cent in 1992 to 35 per cent in 2008.

Is ambition selfish? Personally women who are ambitious tend to go overboard and their ambition becomes their driving force, so yes, to me it is selfish . . . it is all about what they want, it is not about what God wants. Christian women who are very ambitious will find they are moving further away from Christ, who should be their driving force - they cannot serve two masters.  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24) 

 

However I think this applies to both men and women . . . when men are work driven, they too loss focus on Christ . . . how does a husband care for his family if he is at work late into the evening. 

For those of us who do work outside the home, we need to find a balance that does not result in our families being neglected and most importantly that Christ remains front and centre in our lives.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  

(Matthew 22:37)

~oOo~