In a recent article, authors Laurie A. Rudman and Jessica B. Heppen introduce a new concept called the “Glass Slipper Effect.”  This is how the authors describe it:

Romantic fairy tales… can be summed up as, “Once upon a time, a young maiden in dire straits was rescued by a wealthy man of royal birth.  After sufficient tests of the maiden’s love and patience, she was crowned the man’s princess and lived happily ever after.”

This happens more often to young women than men.  Now the problem is that this sort of thinking can lead to gender inequalities.  In the abstract, the authors note that those who hold on to these romantic fantasies:

implicit (but not explicit) romantic fantasies negatively predicted women’s interest in personal power, including projected income, education goal, interest in high-status jobs, and group leadership appeal. By contrast, men’s implicit romantic fantasies were not routinely linked to their interest in personal power. In concert, the findings are consistent with positing a “glass slipper” effect for women that may be an implicit barrier to gender equity.

In other words, giving up the romantic fantasies, then, seems to be a contribution to have gender equality.