Читать книгу Real Ambition - Magazine Psychologies - Страница 10

We know from anthropology that wherever there are communities of human beings, there will always be humans who want more. In a Time Magazine cover story on ambition in 2005,³ anthropologist Edward Lowe at Soka University of America was quoted as saying that ‘Ambition is an evolutionary product’. What’s more it has always differed. ‘No matter how social status is defined, there are certain people in every community who aggressively pursue it and others who aren’t so aggressive.’ Lowe spelt out for the magazine that people want more than the basics. ‘It’s fundamentally human to be prestige conscious,’ he said.

In an article we published in 2012,⁴ ‘Is ambition a dirty word?’, our big question was whether conflicted attitudes were holding women back. What our journalist Anita Chaudhuri found through her research was that both men and women want to achieve recognition. However, whereas men don’t have a problem owning up to being ambitious and thrive on competitiveness, women shy away from being seen as ego-driven. Men tend to focus on one ambition, while women have more of a variety of goals.

A central question in this article was why there were fewer women at boardroom level. Fewer women seemed driven to succeed in male-dominated worlds like finance; instead they seemed drawn to more ‘caring’ or ‘female’ areas like charities or fashion. Yet the piece concluded by pointing to a change in attitudes as a result of the recession, with a younger female generation feeling more comfortable about ambition and older generations of men realizing that old-style ambition comes at a price

“ Success for me now is about hanging out with my kids (aged 8 and 10) when they come home from school. I know that when I’m stressed I don’t switch off and so I don’t engage with them. ”

Chris Baréz-Brown, creative and business beatnik

In just four years since we ran this piece, we believe the meaning of ambition has shifted and changed even more for both men and women. Both genders are seeking ambition that is acceptable, natural and positive.