History Main / NeverASelfmadeWoman

* In ''Film/WestSideStory'' there were girls in the Jets, but they were only there as the girlfriends of some of the more important male characters, with the exception of [[{{Tomboy}} Anybodys]], who wants to be a Jet and fight alongside the rest of them but is treated as an AnnoyingYoungerSibling. After the rumble, she seems to be accepted into the gang. Her name is the definition of this trope. "Whose is she?" "She's anybody's."

* In general, before women were allowed to achieve higher education, most women taught themselves however they could, which was usually attached to their husband, reading the books in his library, and often working with him as an unofficial assistant or apprentice. Maria Winkelmann is one example; she was educated first by her father, a Lutheran minister, who believed that she deserved an education equivalent to that given to young boys. By the age of 13, she was an orphan, but had also received a general education from her brother-in-law Justinus Toellner and the well-known astronomer Christoph Arnold. She became an unofficial apprentice and later assistant for Arnold.

** ComicBook/CarolDanvers zig-zags this trope. Her superhero career began when a Kree device, the Psyche-Magnitron, transferred the powers of the male [[ComicBook/CaptainMarVell Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell)]] on to her and she became ComicBook/MsMarvel, wearing a costume that looked like Mar-Vell's costume [[GenderedOutfit retailored to show more skin.]] She later got different costumes, powers, and code-names (Binary, Warbird), but now, as Captain Marvel, she is once again [[LegacyCharacter using the code-name]] of a well-known (in-universe, at least) male superhero. Also, on a meta-level, she started out as a non-powered supporting character to Captain Mar-Vell in his feature, and yet in-universe and in some alternate continuities like the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, she averts this trope by being a BadassNormal Air Force Captain whose career is entirely self-made.

* Partial aversion with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition to the Burmese military junta and prominent peace activist. She accomplished a great deal in her own right, and most people outside of Burma know her far better than they know her father, General Aung San, who is considered the father of modern Burma and was the leader of the Burmese independence movement. However, within Burma, it cannot be denied that despite her achievements, she got her start by being her father's daughter. [[note]]Her first encounter with politics came in 1988, when she returned to Burma in order to take care of her ailing mother (who died in Dec 27); at the same time, General Ne Win, long time dicator (since 1962), stepped down that year.[[/note]]

%%* In general, before women were allowed to achieve higher education, most women taught themselves however they could, which was usually attached to their husband, reading the books in his library, and often working with him as an unofficial assistant or apprentice. Maria Winkelmann is one example.
* Pre-modern times, female artists who achieved any sort of fame in their day usually were taught by their fathers. Baroque painter Creator/ArtemisiaGentileschi is a good example. As a bonus, compare how big her article is to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orazio_Gentileschi her father's.]]

* Downplayed by Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. While she attained her position at least partially because she was the daughter of the influential politician and former Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, she quickly proved to be far more powerful than expected.

* Partial aversion with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition to the Burmese military junta and prominent peace activist. She accomplished a great deal in her own right, and most people outside of Burma know her far better than they know her father, General Aung San, who is considered the father of modern Burma and was the leader of the Burmese independence movement.

* Pre-modern times, female artists who achieved any sort of fame in their day usually were taught by their fathers. This was certainly true in the Renaissance: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi Artemisia Gentileschi]] is a good example. As a bonus, compare how big her article is to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orazio_Gentileschi her father's.]]

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' covers the younger years of four famous Arthurian characters: Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and Guinevere. Guinevere's RagsToRiches arc is the only one contingent on her relationship to a man; that is, she only becomes the destined queen of Camelot after marrying Arthur. Having reimagined her as a servant girl rather than a noblewoman in her own right, this was somewhat unavoidable.

* Hikari from ''Anime/{{Digimon}}'' is mostly known for her big brother being the leader and Taichi even has more accolades than her in the sequel despite not being a main character as she is. Even Takeru gains more independence from his role as Yamato's little brother and [=HolyAngemon=] can rival [=MetalGarurumon=] while the Tailmon line is firmly behind the Agumon line. In ''Zero Two'', Hikari had no hopes of being the team's leader despite her older brother having the role and her higher experience than the new cast.

* In the late '90s when females weren't in WWE that much, those who were usually came in because they were dating an existing male star - Wrestling/{{Sable}} was with Wrestling/MarcMero, The Kat with Wrestling/JerryLawler, Wrestling/{{Chyna}} with Wrestling/TripleH, Debra to Wrestling/JeffJarrett, etc. As the women's division grew, this was averted.
* Invoked by the Wrestling/BellaTwins, who credit their respective partners - Daniel Bryan for Brie, John Cena for Nikki - for teaching them more about wrestling than they had ever known before. Nikki however refuted this in a 2016 rivalry with {{Wrestling/Carmella}}, assuring the newcomer that she still earned all her achievements in spite of who her boyfriend was. In the late 2010s, people have also noted that the men gained a lot from their relationships too. Especially Daniel Bryan - who went from indie darling to national celebrity partly thanks to ''Series/TotalDivas'' (which he would not have got a spot on if he hadn't been dating Brie). They also did talk up Natalya's help towards them when they were first training, but fans often ignore that in favour of mentioning the men (as that was when the twins went from novelty act to prominent players in the company).
* A rare GenderFlip came with Tyson Kidd and Wrestling/{{Natalya|Neidhart}}. Due to the latter's success with ''Series/TotalDivas'', a storyline was started where he resented everyone comparing him to his wife's success.

* Some detractors of ''Film/LostInTranslation'' liked to imply this about Creator/SofiaCoppola, suggesting that her father had somehow pushed the movie to success. Which might make sense if her brother Roman's movie ''CQ'' had experienced the same kind of success. There's an article where a movie critic related how, when talking about Sofia Coppola to industry insiders, they always blame Coppola solely for her failures, but attribute any success she has to either her father or the male actors/producers/etc. she was working with.
* There are unfounded rumors that Music/KurtCobain wrote Hole's album ''Live Through This'' because some people can't seem to accept that Courtney Love might be responsible for her own success in music.

* One stereotype of the modern-day girl gamer (and, so far, the only one consistently seen as a ''positive'' stereotype) is ''"that girl who can kick her boyfriend's ass at Halo."'' The "logic" being that [[ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet a girl just has no reason to play]] unless a man coaxes her into the hobby.

* Many businesses were inherited by widows or daughters - even if they outlast their predecessors and lead the company to heights their father or husband had never achieved, they are often dismissed as the "daughter of" or "wife of" in public perception.

* Lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' where the [[StrawMisogynist misogynistic]] Cotton Hill (Hank's father) would ''always'' call Peggy Hill "Hank's wife". As if to him ''nothing else of her matters'' than being a housewife to his son.

* In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski got her senate seat when her father Frank Murkowski left the Senate to become governor and appointed her as his replacement. In the next election, the voters removed the governor's power to appoint replacement senators, though they did give her another term in the same election. They re-elected her ''again'' in the next election, despite her name not even being on the ballot.

* Alaskan tropers will remember that Senator Lisa Murkowski got her senate seat when her father Frank Murkowski left the Senate to become governor and appointed her as his replacement. In the next election, the voters removed the governor's power to appoint replacement senators, though they did give her another term in the same election. They re-elected her ''again'' in the next election, despite her name not even being on the ballot.

* In general, before women were allowed to achieve higher education, most women taught themselves however they could, which was usually attached to their husband, reading the books in his library, and often working with him as an unofficial assistant or apprentice. Maria Winkelmann is one example.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergamy Hypergamy]], or the practice of marrying an older or more established partner is typically associated with heterosexual women, even though historically it was quite common for heterosexual men of lower standing to court wealthy heiresses in the hopes of partaking in their fortunes.

* Gender-inverted when it comes to ''Franchise/PrettyCure'', where instances of the boys using anything resembling Cure power was because of something related to the heroines.

* Hikari from ''Anime/{{Digimon}}'' is mostly known for her big brother being the leader and Taichi even has more accolades than her in the sequel despite not being a main character as she is. Even Takeru gains more independence from his role as Yamato's little brother and [=HolyAngemon=] can rival [=MetalGarurumon=] while the Tailmmon line is firmly behind the Agumon line. In ''Zero Two'', Hikari had no hopes of being the team's leader despite her older brother having the role and her higher experience than the new cast.

* Hikari from ''Anime/{{Digimon}}'' is mostly known for her big brother being the leader and Taichi even has more accolades than her in the sequel despite not being a main character as she is. Even Takeru gains more independence from his role as Yamato's little brother and [=HolyAngemon=] can rival [=MetalGarururmon=] while the Tailmmon line is firmly behind the Agumon line. In ''Zero Two'', Hikari had no hopes of being the team's leader despite her older brother having the role and her higher experience than the new cast.

* Kari from ''Anime/{{Digimon}}'' is mostly known for her big brother being the leader and Tai even has more accolades than her in the sequel despite not being a main character as she is. Even TK gains more independence from his role as Matt's little brother and Magnaangemon can rival Matt's mega level digimon while the Gatomon line is firmly behind the Agumon line. In season 2 Kari had no hopes of being the team's leader despite her older brother having the role and her higher experience than the new cast.

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', much of Videl's claim to fame is that she is the daughter of Mr. Satan (Hercule in the old American version), a former world martial arts champion, superstar, and the #1 human fighter who doesn't use Ki, and she gets much of her combat skills from training with her love interest Gohan.

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', much of Videl's claim to fame is that she is the daughter of Mr. Satan (Hercule in the American version), a former world martial arts champion, superstar, and the #1 human fighter who doesn't use Ki, and she gets much of her combat skills from training with her love interest Gohan.

* In the original ''Manga/YuGiOh'', Shizuka's only real part to play was Jonouchi's helpless blind or captive sister. She also owes her part in the show to the fact that the love triangle between her, Honda and Otogi is played for laughs.

* In ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis 2032'', Sylia Stingray was able to create the Knight Sabers and fight Genom thanks to the [[PoweredArmor hardsuits]] her scientist father invented. [[DownplayedTrope On the other hand,]] her father might have built them and her brother Mackie might do most of the repair and maintenance side, but [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys the money to keep them running]] comes from Sylia's ''extremely'' successful day job running an upmarket boutique.

-->'''Well I'm not gonna just call you Dream's sister. That's a bit awkward.', Tommy tried to fix up his posture, getting back into his more confident persona. He had to keep up with this girl, somehow, and being confused wouldn't aid that much. 'How about... Drista? You know, like a [[{{Portmanteau}} combination]] of the words Dream and sister?'.
'So I'm [[LampshadeHanging completely defined by my brother and my relation to him]]?'.
'Uh... Yeah.'.
'And you’re going to call me by that nickname and nothing else?'.
'If you let me, yeah.'.
The girl thought about it, grinned and shrugged.

* Generally speaking, many historical women only ascended to power due to the death of their sons or husbands; "Dowager Empress such and such", that sort of thing. Among elected offices, [[http://www.vox.com/2016/7/28/12319508/hillary-clinton-bill-clinton-dynasty an article in Vox noted]] "a large percentage of women who took their countries’ top jobs had male family members in high office first."

* Although she evolved to stand on her own, [[Series/PrettyLittleLiars Troian Bellisario]] knows [[Creator/DonaldBellisario whom to thank for her start]].

** Yui is an even more interesting case, being an ''inversion'' of the trope. Gendo was her husband and is the head of NERV ''now'', but didn't really start taking his studies seriously until he got involved with Yui. It appears at first that Shinji is involved because he's Gendo's son, but it turns out that him being Yui's son is much more important, since his EVA is also Yui in a way. Rei is a clone of Yui. Fuyutsuki was Yui's mentor; he's kind of only still in it out of loyalty to her. All in all, Yui is definitely the central person in the series, even though she'd been dead for years when it starts. One indication of this, though we don't find it out for quite a while, is that "Ikari" is ''her'' family name; Gendo's family name was Rokubungi, but when they married he took her name rather than the other way around.

* Conina of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' does her best to avoid this, fighting her father's influences as a barbarian, and not always succeeding. Of course, since those violent impulses come in handy, it's probably a good thing.

%%* This is a big source of criticism for the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series. Among them:
%%** Bella Swan has virtually no identity beyond Edward Cullen. The few details we are given about her are there to emphasize her relationship with him (they both like ''Clair de Lune'', they both like Jane Austen, etc) except for her housekeeping skills, which we're told were developed to take care of her mother, but are mostly employed out of necessity because of her incompetent father.
%%** Rosalie's defining character trait throughout most of the books is that she is jealous that she does not have Edward's affections. Her backstory, revealed in ''Eclipse'', is that she was gang-raped by her fiancé and his male friends. In the ''Twilight Illustrated Guide'', we find out that the main reason she became a vampire was that Carlisle had hoped she would be a wife for Edward.
%%** Esme's backstory is how she met Carlisle and was smitten with him as a teenager, was abused by her husband as an adult, and was saved and turned into a vampire by Carlisle.

%%** Kim, Claire, and Emily are only introduced into the story to be the imprintees[=/=]LoveInterests of Jared, Quil, and Sam respectively. [[spoiler:This goes double for Renesmee, who from ''birth'' was used as a way to solve the Bella/Edward/Jacob love triangle.]] Leah also spends the entire series being defined by being the bitchy ex-fiance of Sam.
%%** Victoria spends the whole series with no identity beyond being James's mate, which also serves as her only motivation for serving as the villainess for the next two books. Similarly, Irena's only identifying characteristic in ''Breaking Dawn'' is her grieving for the loss of Laurent, and Jane is always shown as a sister and as Aro's servant.
%%** Kate's entire [[DefrostingIceQueen character development]] in ''Breaking Dawn'' centers around her forming a relationship with Garrett.
* Antoninia in Literature/BelisariusSeries is a complex version. She is a HighClassCallGirl who gets Belisarius to marry her. She is certainly not shuffled into [[StayInTheKitchen the kitchen]], but her achievements are only possible because she has "respectableized" herself by marrying a great general who is willing to treat her as an equal partner.