Ambition is tempered not just by individual whim, but by the codes and messages people pick up on throughout their lives, fractured by gender, class, race, sexuality and levels of disability. Telling women to ignore their inner barometer of their own likely success is hardly a solution. A woman may be as ambitious as she wants, but the people hiring and firing have their own preconceptions, in a society that maintains that women are less decisive, logical and driven. If a women's ambitions exceed the ambition her superiors feel is appropriate, wanting can do barely anything--you're still stuck on the pay grade your managers have attributed to you.