This was my response to an article a friend posted to a private Facebook group stating that women in Brazil are More Ambitious than American women.
I find that statement untrue, and the title misleading. Here’s my reasoning:
The title is misleading – this is a survey the article said measures for SELF-assessment of ambition. In the US, there’s a cultural stigma attached to ambition in many sub-cultures.
Now, in terms of self-assessment and the statistics they gave for how much more Brazilian women are more integrated in the business world, I get that.
That’s not surprising, and I have my own theories about that, just from observing my own cultural background, and those women friends I have who may be American by birth but grew up immersed in their alternate cultural background.
Brazilian culture isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot more accepting of all shapes sizes hues etc of women’s beauty, there isn’t just one or two standards that all are aspiring to.
And in every culture where I see that, I also see that having that issue off the table has women more likely to be confident, etc – I think that has an affect on how much women tend to be proud of ALL their talents including intelligence and leadership.