women and ambition

Even in the case of social activists such as Jane Addams and Ida Tarbell, this publicly yielding face persists. In her study of women's stories, Jill Ker Conway points out that the personal correspondence of these women is forcible and full of conviction, but that their auto-biographies portray them as passively called to activism, sought out by causes rather than seeking them.

In reality, Alma was not quite so sanguine about her new station as dutiful wife to a moody, solitary artist. (Prior to their marriage, she had been a promising composer in her own right, but Mahler had made her quit, saying that there could be only one composer in the family.) As she wrote in her diary that July, “There’s such a struggle going on in me! And a miserable longing for someone who thinks OF ME, who helps me to find MYSELF! I’ve sunk to the level of a housekeeper!”