Ambition made manifest in ways we don’t approve of

I’m sharing this quote (from a profile of Hillary Clinton) for a few reasons:

• The profile itself includes interesting insights on womanhood, feminism, and politics.
• Her thoughts on ambition strike me as particularly resonant. (I’ve been nervous about ambition ever since I was stage manager for a 6th grade play, and the teacher pulled me and a close friend aside to tell us that our peers thought we were a little too power-hungry.) Here’s what HRC said on the topic of ambition:

She thinks women’s ambition is regarded as dangerous, she posited that it was about “a fear that ambition will crowd out everything else — relationships, marriage, children, family, homemaking, all the other parts [of life] that are important to me and important to most women I know.”

• Leslie and I started The Smart Domestic to share perspectives on how to make our adult lives better, more interesting, and more honest. Hillary has led a life full of ambition and opinion, and she’s had to experience her own personal turmoil in very public ways. Whether you #feelthebern or, we shudder to say, you want to make America great again, you have to admit Hillary’s got some bona fide cred as a politician, feminist, and public figure. Reading about her (especially in a piece written by author Rebecca Traister) adds dimension to how we talk about power and politics.

All this to say #sorrynotsorry for posting a “politically sourced” quote. But tell us: Does the word ambition carry any baggage for you? Or are you happy to be an ambitious woman?