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| - This trope is the feminine-gender-role version of But Not Too Black. Writers are often hesitant to present a female character with ambition when it comes to a career. In some cultures, women are expected to only have a job until they're married, at which point they'll quit to focus on being a wife and mother, so having a character who dreams of a serious career can suggest that the character lacks femininity and she will be seen as less sympathetic. If the writers want her to be an active, strongly motivated person, but think that people won't relate to an ambitious female, they have a problem on their hands.
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| abstract
| - This trope is the feminine-gender-role version of But Not Too Black. Writers are often hesitant to present a female character with ambition when it comes to a career. In some cultures, women are expected to only have a job until they're married, at which point they'll quit to focus on being a wife and mother, so having a character who dreams of a serious career can suggest that the character lacks femininity and she will be seen as less sympathetic. If the writers want her to be an active, strongly motivated person, but think that people won't relate to an ambitious female, they have a problem on their hands. The simple compromise is to give her an acceptable feminine goal: the job she wants (or already has) will involve the skills crucial to homemaking: caretaking, childrearing, cooking, cleaning, or other skills that showcase how suitable she is to be a wife and/or mother. This gives her a goal in life outside of wife and motherhood, but still proves that she obviously has the nurturing, caring instinct that would make her a good one. Consider also the idea of gendered careers in general: men are chefs, women are cooks; men are professors, women are schoolteachers, men are doctors, women are nurses. In cases where a female character has a career that isn't typically feminine, it's very likely the audience will see her working in ways that emphasize her femininity more than her job would normally entail. In its worst examples, her job is only window-dressing for her role as The Chick, and there's a better-than-average chance that she'll be focused primarily on supporting (or failing to control) a male character, even when she's supposed to be in a position of authority. If she already has a gender neutral (or downright masculine) profession, her Acceptable Feminine Goals is likely to become motherhood itself, and this will almost never be an easy transition; having chosen an unfeminine career, the struggle revolves around finding the feminine instinct that she's lost in her busy man's-world job, or punishing her for forgetting it. This can sometimes lead to cries of Real Women Never Wear Dresses, especially in poorly-written cases where a female character's personality is relatively androgynous and action-oriented... except for her Acceptable Feminine Goal, where it seems tacked on in order to keep her from being too unappealing as a potential Love Interest for The Hero. When adding examples, please remember that Tropes Are Not Bad, and having an Acceptable Feminine Goals does not imply that the character is somehow less Badass, or that her relationships are compromised, just for wanting to do something traditionally feminine. The point is that her goal is designed to be feminine to make sure she's feminine enough for the audience to accept her. See the Playing With Tropes link up at the top if you're not sure how the example fits in: it's not an aversion just because her career is considered masculine! See also Feminine Women Can Cook and Stay in the Kitchen. Related to Never a Self-Made Woman and I Just Want to Be Loved, Career Versus Man, Family Versus Career. Compare/Contrast No Guy Wants an Amazon and Iron Lady. Examples of Acceptable Feminine Goals include:
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