Would you say you were ambitious? For many of us ‘ambition’ has overtones of being self-promoting or even ruthless, not necessarily a label we’re happy to wear openly, even if privately we’d admit differently. Yet Anna Fels presents ambition as being a healthy aspect of all our lives, a natural desire to reach our full potential and find fulfilment and purpose. Given this positive interpretation she asks how women can recognise their ambitions and follow their dreams.
There is much said, throughout the book, of how girls’ and women’s ambitions have been thwarted by inequality of opportunity but the refreshingly ‘unwhining’ tone of the book makes you optimistic about the future, rather than despondent about the past. For me, her exploration as to how girls who are ambitious can lose their self belief and motivation to achieve as they wrestle with marriage and motherhood, was empowering and helped me to reconnect with my earlier hopes and dreams.
The only thing that is missing from this book is a dialogue with Christian values - of servanthood, of the last being first, and of the foolishness of the world. But in some ways it is helpful that this is missing because you are forced to engage with those questions yourself and find your own answers.
My recommendation of this book is enthusiastic and offered in the hope that it takes you on as fruitful a journey as it did me.
Lauretta Wilson is Team Vicar at St Benedict’s in Hemel Hempstead
The Sophia Network exists to connect women in youth work and ministry to access training, develop skills and share wisdom.
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