Secret Paths: Women in the New MidlifeDrawing on detailed interviews with women in their forties and fifties, Apter finds that women in midlife undergo a series of changes through which they develop a newly powerful sense of their own identity. She sees midlife as a time when women gain greater control over their decisions and a strengthened sense of their potential. While other writers have seen midlife for women as a time dominated by biological changes associated with menopause, Apter looks at midlife passage through women's psychology. She debunks the myths associated with women's fear of aging and decreased attractiveness. Though this once was thought to cause anxiety and depression, Apter finds that women deliberately negotiate an acceptance of who they are physically, and resist cultural images that marginalize them. While "midlife crisis" for some men is associated with a last-ditch attempt to hold on to their youth, for women it is an attempt to refocus their energies for the future. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 7 |
Introduction Crisis of a New Breed | 17 |
Redefining Beauty | 49 |
Changing | 78 |
Plans | 112 |
Expanding Horizons | 150 |
Menopause | 201 |
the Way Ahead | 218 |
Adult | 270 |
Passing It On | 301 |
Epilogue | 315 |
Notes | 321 |
References | 339 |
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achieve adolescence adult anger Anita Brookner anxiety Arlie Hochschild awareness become career Carol Gilligan Carolyn Heilbrun child confront constraints daughter decisions depression described divorce Doris Lessing early adulthood emotional empty nest energy envy expansive women expectations experience face fear feel felt feminine forty friends friendship future Gail Sheehy gain Germaine Greer girls Gloria Steinem goals going Hormone Replacement Therapy husband ideals innovative women interview Jeri keep knew less longer look manage marriage Martha Quest maturity menopause midlife crisis midlife women mother needs older one's pain parents partner past path patterns person potential psychological question realize regret relationship resistance responses roles sample seemed sense sexual skills social someone spoke story talk Terri Apter there's things thought tion traditional women vision voice woman women's lives young youth