Revising Herself: The Story of Women's Identity from College to Midlife

Josselson (psychology professor at Towson State and a practicing psychotherapist) says in her introduction that she hoped to do in text what Michael Apted did in film with his 35 Up series. In many ways, Josselson outdoes Apted in drawing together the experiences of women. Between 1971 and 1973, she interviewed 30 female college seniors then met with them again in 1983 and in 1993. Josselson's important account of a changing generation benefits from her excellent interview techniques, her insight into the ways women edit their autobiographies and the fortuitous timing by which her study tracked the arc of a burgeoning women's movement. The data yields some interesting observations: that childless women (close to half those in the study did not reproduce) found equal satisfaction in other types of connection, and that ""Even into midlife, identity is cast against the background of their mothers."" Josselson's main point is that, at different times, women recount their life stories in different ways. Many in later life claimed that college had been an active and life-changing experience, while at the time their interviews made them seem passive and uninvolved. At 33, Andrea believed it was acceptable to have extramarital affairs; at 43, married to a different partner, she recalled that the affairs made her feel guilty. The writing is not always perfectly fluid, and as Josselson herself points out, the sample of 30 is far from heterogeneous (the one black participant died after the first round of interviews, leaving only white women) but the information presented here is invaluable. (Oct.)