Research Catalog

Title

The seasons of a woman's life / by Daniel J. Levinson; in collaboration with Judy D. Levinson.

Author

Levinson, Daniel J. (Daniel Jacob), 1920-1994

Publication

New York : Knopf, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Levinson, Judy D.

Description

xiv, 438 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

• The Seasons of a Woman's Life, based upon lengthy and exhaustive interviews with forty-five randomly chosen women - businesswomen, academics, and homemakers - completes and substantiates Levinson's thesis: that all human beings, of whatever sex or culture, go right on developing throughout their lives, in a pattern of amazing predictability.
• Change - the movement from one life structure to the next - is, as Levinson has said, "part of the nature of our existence." Almost half our adult life is spent in developmental transitions, and these are almost invariably difficult, sometimes agonizing.
• Yet if the developmental timetable is surprisingly similar in men and women - and this fact is one of Levinson's principal new findings - The Seasons of a Woman's Life also illuminates a number of profound differences. Many relate to the phenomenon of gender splitting, the rigid division between male and female, masculine and feminine, that has existed throughout history. In an epochal shift, this division is now being eroded.
• But the shape of women's lives, and the circumstances of their passages through the phases of adult development, are still uniquely affected by gender issues. This emerges with poignant clarity from the stories told by the women interviewed here.

Subjects

• Adult
• Adulthood > United States
• Middle-aged women > United States > Psychology
• United States
• Businesswomen > United States > Psychology
• Middle Aged
• Women
• Maturation (Psychology) > United States
• Housewives > United States > Psychology
• Psychology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes index.

Contents

1. The Study of Women's Lives -- 2. The Human Life Cycle: Eras and Developmental Periods -- 3. The Significance of Gender in Women's Lives -- 4. Adolescent Life Structure: Homemakers -- 5. Early Adult Transition: Homemakers -- 6. Entry Life Structure for Early Adulthood: Homemakers -- 7. Age 30 Transition: Homemakers -- 8. Culminating Life Structure for Early Adulthood: Homemakers -- 9. Mid-life Transition: Homemakers -- 10. Adolescent Life Structure: Career Women -- 11. Early Adult Transition: Career Women -- 12. Entry Life Structure for Early Adulthood: Career Women -- 13. Age 30 Transition: Career Women -- 14. Culminating Life Structure for Early Adulthood: Career Women -- 15. Mid-life Transition: Career Women -- 16. Concluding Thoughts: Adult Development, Gender, and Historical Change.

ISBN

039453235X (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

95020893

OCLC

• 32970229
• ocm32970229
• SCSB-4779899

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries