The Seasons of a Woman's Life

As a 40 i s h w o m a n genera l i n t e r n i s t feeKng the compet ing tugs of fantily and profess ion, I w a s de l ighted at the p rospec t of r ead ing The Seasons o f a Woman's Ifffe. ~eVritten by Daniel J. Levinson in co l labora t ion w i t h h i s wife, J u d y D. Levinson, t h i s book s t ud i e s w o m e n in midlife in order to a dd r e s s the ques t i on of w h e t h e r the re is a s ingle adu l t deve lopmenta l life cycle ana logous to the ear l ier p rocess of child development . The Levinsons p r e s e n t s tor ies of w o m e n f rom th ree w a l k s of life h o m e m a k e r s , b u s i n e s s execut ives , and academics s tor ies t h a t r e m a i n wi th me long a f te r r ead ing the book. This book h a s p a r t i c u l a r appea l to r e ade r s in t e res t ed in qual i ta t ive me thods , gender i s s ue s , or s t ud i e s of na r ra t ive and biography. The S e a s o n s o f a Woman's Life is a seque l to Danie l Levinson 's 1978 The Seasons o f a Man's LtJ~, in w h i c h the populax t e r m "midlife crisis" origklated, Fk-ofessor E m e r i t u s of Psychol ogy in the D e p a r t m e n t of Psych ia t iy a t the Yale Univers i ty School of Medicine, Levinson h a d come to identify h im s e l f over the course of h i s career a s a hybr id a t the m a r g i n s of p s y c h d o g y , sociology, and psych ia t i y . He developed m u l t t m e t h o d a p p r o a c h e s to s t u d y ind iv idua l l ives over t ime, s u c h as h i s tec t~l ique of " in ten sive b iograph ica l in te iv iewmg. " In The Seasons o f a Man's IJfe, Levinson add re s sed the ques t ions : Is there an u n d e r l y i n g order i n the adul t life cou r se? Do men ' s l ives evolve in accord w i t h bas ic u n i v e r s a l p ~ n e i p l e s ? Levinson conc luded tha t , in h i s adu l t development , every m a n goes t h rough a predic table order of age-related "seasons" or eras, In h i s preface to The Seasons o f a Woman's Life, Levinson exp la ins tha t , h a d he s tud ied m e n and w o m e n toge ther from the outse t , he would have done a disservice to each group and r u n the r i s k of genera l i zk lg f rom the f ind ings of the ma le cohort. He u n d e r t o o k the s t u d y of m e n first, he s t a t e s , largely ou t of in t e res t in h i s own p e r s o n a l adu l t deve lopment , ye t w i t h the i n t en t i on of doing a second s t u d y of w o m e n ' s lives, In 1979, r eady to e m b a r k on the women ' s project, he w a s app roached by the F inanc ia l Women ' s Assoc ia t ion of New York w i t h an offer to s ponso r h i s w o r k on s t u d y i n g w o m e n ' s lives. In 1981, Teacher s I n s u r a n c e and Annu i ty Assoc ia t ion became a cosponsor . Thus , two p o p u l a t ions he s t ud i e s in the book are w o m e n f rom corporate f inanc ia l b u s i n e s s e s in the New York City a rea a nd facul ty in colleges and un ive r s i t i e s located a long the New York Bos ton con-idor, His th i rd cohor t compr i ses h o m e m a k e r s d r a w n raxldolifly f rom the grea te r New Haven t e l ephone directory. All of the w o m e n s tud ied are d r a w n from a p o d of severa l h u n d r e d r e s p o n d e n t s to a quest ionnai re , deta i ls of w h i c h are no t inc luded in the book.