The Unavailable Father

The father/daughter relationship is crucial in a girls development. It has a profound impact on her sense of who she is and on all her future intimate relationships, with either men or women. The failure of the father-daughter relationship can send a young girl into adulthood convinced she is a woman without worth. The author conducted in-depth interviews with 75 women over 25 who became successful in their professional and/or personal lives despite the lack of a father's recognition and affection; These women are from a wide range of economic, ethnic, educational and geographic backgrounds. While every womans story is unique, certain patterns emerge: There are fathers who only can love conditionally, fathers who buy a daughters love but give none in return, fathers whose daughters are simply extensions of their own egos, fathers who slyly manipulate, fathers who thrive on the power and control they assert; still others who are verbally or physically abusive, some who