Slaying the Mermaid: Women and the Culture of Sacrifice Hardcover - 1998

From the publisher

In Slaying the Mermaid, Stephanie Golden reveals with eye-opening clarity the historical, cultural, social, and even mythic reasons why women feel such an obligation to put the needs of others first -- even against their will and contrary to their principles -- because they cannot face the pain they would feel if they did not. Slaying the Mermaid will help women become conscious of the self-defeating behavior they've been blind to, and reclaim their energy, creativity, and identity.

Drawing on extensive research and interviews with experts and a diverse array of women, and united by the image of the Little Mermaid, the fabled ideal of the self-sacrificing woman, Slaying the Mermaid illuminates the unconscious motivations of mothers who subordinate their smallest needs to those of their children, daughters who assume the burden of caring for elderly parents, wives who sacrifice their careers for their husbands, and women in the workplace who let their extra efforts go uncompensated. Far from being an argument against self-sacrifice, however, Slaying the Mermaid rediscovers the original meaning of sacrifice, helping women reclaim the empowering concept as a good and ennobling trait.