"LAURA LARSON"

 

"In consequence of this defeatism, woman is easily reconciled to a moderate success;
she does not dare to aim too high.  Entering upon her profession with superficial preparation,
she soon sets limits to her ambitions.  It often seems to her meritorious enough
if she earns her own living...

Thus, of the legion of women who toy with arts and letters, very few persevere;
and even those who pass this first obstacle will very often continue to be torn
 between their narcissm and an inferiority complex. Inability to forget themselves
is a defect that will weigh more heavily upon them than upon women in any other career;
if their essential aim is the abstract affirmation of self,
the formal satisfaction of success,they will not give themselves
over to the contemplation of the world: they will be incapable of re-creating it in art."

from "The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir