Abstract
The cataclysmic change in the social construction of women’s roles in the last quarter of the 20th century erased the old definitions of the “social clock” for women in midlife. Historically, midlife women have been represented in the psychological literature primarily in regard to their reproductive role and their marital status (Gergen, 1990). More recently, this literature has swung in the other direction and has been focused on women as career achievers. But women in midlife are to be found in a panoply of life roles, sometimes sequentially, sometimes simultaneously. Women in the middle of their life course might be grandmothers or new mothers, career women in positions of authority or women undertaking new or first careers, divorced several times or never married, formerly heterosexual and now lesbian, disenchanted with political commitment or newly engaged, or people with various other life projects central in their lives. The absence of universal markers creates a challenge to a developmental psychology that would try to conceptualize a generalized process of midlife development in women.
What one must do to bring her to life was to think poetically and prosaically at one and the same moment, thus keeping in touch with fact—that she is Mrs. Martin, aged thirty-six, dressed in blue, wearing a black hat and brown shoes; but not losing sight of fiction either—that she is a vessel in which all sorts of spirits and forces are coursing and flashing perpetually.
—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, p. 66
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Andrews, L. (1993). Women at the edge of two worlds. New York: Harper Collins.
Apter, T. (1995). Secret Paths: Women in the new midlife. New York: W. W. Norton.
Barnett, R. C, & Baruch, G. K. (1982). On the psychological well-being of women in the mid years. Working paper no. 85. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. Wellesley, MA.
Barokas, J. (1992). Development and test of a causal model of midlife women’s attainments, commitments and satisfactions (life satisfaction). Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Baruch, G., Barnett, R., & Rivers, C. (1983). Lifeprints. New York: Signet.
Baruch, G. K., & Barnett, R. C. (1986). Role quality, multiple role involvement, and psychological well-being in midlife women. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 52(3), 578–585.
Carlson, B. E., & Videka-Sherman, L. (1990). An empirical test of androgyny in the middle years: Evidence from a national survey. Sex Roles, 23(5–6), 305–324.
Chodorow, N. (1978). The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Crosby, F. (1991). Juggling. New York: The Free Press.
Fiske, M. (1980). Changing hierarchies of commitment in adulthood. In N. J. W. Smelser and E. H. Erikson (Eds.), Themes of work and love in adulthood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press.
Franz, C. E., Cole, E. R, Crosby, F. J., & Stewart, A. J. (1994). In C. E. Franz and A. J. Stewart, (Eds.), Women creating lives: Identities, resilience, and resistance (pp. 302–323) Boulder, CO, US: Westview Press.
Gergen, M. (1990). Finished at forty: Women’s development within the patriarchy. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14, 471–493.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gutmann, D. (1987). Reclaimed powers: Toward a new psychology of men and women in later life. New York: Basic Books.
Harter, S. (1992). Visions of the self: Beyond the me in the mirror (pp. 1–40). Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. University of Nebraska Press.
Helson, R., & McCabe, L. (1994). The social clock project in middle age. In B. F. Turner & L. E. Troll (Eds.), Women growing older: Psychological perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Helson, R., Mitchell, V, & Moane, G. (1984). Personality and patterns of adherence and nonadherence to the social clock. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45,1079–1096.
Helson, R., & Moane, G. (1987). Personality change in women from college to midlife. J. Personality and Social Psychology, 53,176–186.
Hulbert, K. D., & Schuster, D. T. (1993). Women’s Lives Through Time. San Franciso: Jossey Bass.
Josselson, R. (1987). Josselson, R. Finding Herself: Pathways to identity development in women. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Josselson, R. (1996). Revising herself: The story of women’s identity from college to midlife. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1954). Collected works of C. G. Jung, Vol 17. London: Routledge.
Kegan, R. (1982). The Evolving Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Klohnen, E. C, Vandewater, E. A., & Young, A. (1996). Negotiating the middle years: Ego-relisiency and successful midlife adjustment in women. Personality and Aging, 11(3), 431–442.
Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. New York: International Universities Press.
Kroger, J., & Green, K. (1996). Events associated with identity status change. Journal of Adolescence, 19(5), 477–490.
Labouvie-Vief, G. (1994). Women’s creativity and images of gender. In B. F. Turner & L. E. Troll (Eds.), Women growing older: Psychological perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Labouvie-Vief, G., Chiodo, L. M., Goguen, L. A., Diehl, M., & Orwoll, L. (1995). Representations of self across the Life span. Psychology and Aging, 10,1–12.
Lachman, M. E., & James, J. B. (Eds.). (1997). Multiple paths of midlife development. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Levinson, D. J. (1996). The seasons of a woman’s life. New York: Knopf.
Lieblich, A. (1986) Successful career women at midlife: Crises and transitions. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 23(4), 301–312.
Markus, H., & Oyserman, D. (1989). Gender and thought: The role of the self concept. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds.), Gender and Thought. New York: Springer-Verlag (pp. 100–127).
McAdams, D. (1993). The stories we live by. New York: W. Morrow.
Miller, J. B. (1976). Toward a New Psychology of Women. Boston: Beacon Press.
Mitchell, V., & Helson, R. (1990). Women’s prime of life. Is it the 50s? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 451–470.
Neugarten, B. (1968). Middle age and aging: A reader in social psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Neugarten, B. (1977). Personality and aging. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Pietromonaco, P., Manis, J., & Frohardt-Lane, K. (1986). Psychological consequences of multiple social roles. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 10(4), 373–381.
Rossi, A. (1980). Life-span theories and women’s lives. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 6(1), 4–32.
Schuster, D. T., Langland, L., & Smith, D. G. (1993). The UCLA gifted women, class of 1961: Living up to potential. In K. D. Hulbert & D. T. Schuster (Eds.), Women’s lives through time. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sheehy, G. (1991). The silent passage: Menopause. New York: Random House.
Stewart, A. J., & Healy, J. M., Jr. (1989). Linking individual development and social change. American Psychologist, 44, 195–206.
Stewart, A. J., & Malley, J. E. Case studies of agency and communion in women’s lives. In R. K. Unger (Ed.), Representations: Social constructions of gender. Amityville, NY: Baywood.
Stewart, A. J., & Vandewater, E. A. (1999). “If I had it to do over again…”: Midlife review, midcourse corrections and women’s well-being in midlife. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(2), 270–283.
Strayer, J. (1996). Trapped in the mirror: Psychosocial reflections on midlife and the Queen in Snow White. Human Development, 39(3), 155–172.
Tangri, S., & Jenkins, S. R. (1986). Stability and change in role innovation and life plans. Sex Roles, 14, 647–662.
Troll, L. E. (1982). Continuations: Adult development and aging. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Walker, B. (1995). The Crone: Woman of age, wisdom and power. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Young-Eisendrath, P., & Wiedemann, F. (1987). Female authority. New York: Guilford Press.
Zerbe, K. J. (1992). The phoenix rises from eros, not ashes: Creative collaboration in the lives of five Impressionist and Postimpressionist women artists. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 20(2), 295–315.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Josselson, R. (2002). Revisions. In: Demick, J., Andreoletti, C. (eds) Handbook of Adult Development. The Springer Series in Adult Development and Aging. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0617-1_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0617-1_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5160-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0617-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive