Cinderella complex

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cinderella complex" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Cinderella complex was first described by Colette Dowling,^[1] who wrote a book on women's fear of independence – an unconscious desire to be taken care of by someone else. The complex is said to become more apparent as a person grows older.^{[2][better source needed]}

The complex is named after the fairy tale character of Cinderella. Its title refers to an ideal of femininity as portrayed in that story, where a woman is expected to be beautiful, polite, supportive of others but fundamentally incapable of either taking care of herself or changing her situation through her own efforts. Instead she is taught that she needs to be protected and taken care by another, usually a man. (i.e., the Prince). Dowling examines the deleterious effects of this socialization on the psychology of girls and women.