Cinderella Complex

The Cinderella complex was first described by Colette Dowling in a book on women's fear of independence, an unconscious desire to be taken care of by someone else that becomes more apparent as a person grows older. Dowling named it for the fairy tale character Cinderella, whose story portrays an ideal of femininity in which a woman is beautiful, polite, and supportive of others but ultimately unable to care for herself or change her own situation, instead needing to be rescued and provided for by someone else, usually a man. Dowling's book examined the harmful effects of this socialization on the psychology of girls and women.