The Seasons of a Woman's Life

by Daniel J. Levinson

Based upon interviews with 45 randomly chosen women--businesswomen, academics, homemakers--this book speaks with uncanny directness to the dreams, emotional crises, inexplicable feelings, social conflicts, and psychological upheavals that mark each woman's life course.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Relationships, Self Help

438 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 1996

Reviews

[Andrea M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because the author's research was revelatory in so many ways. This book followed Season's of a Man's Life and is the last great accomplishment of Levinson's life. He spent years on this book and he pulled out threads of truth that can only be seen by looking carefully at people's common experiences. This is a study of women between the ages of 20 (or beginning at marriage) to about age 60 when they enter the "retirement" phase of life. Levinson interviewed 30 women and essentially got their life story. He divides the women into unemployed housewives, full time working mothers and academic/highly educated working women. Then he gives the reader one page summaries on each woman and ties the choices they made to the age of life and the common aspirations humans have at different stages of life. I did not finish reading about all the women but I did read all the summaries of women who had spent at least part of their early marriage as unemployed housewives. None of the women surveyed had a Norman Rockwell American life. The author asserts that the women picked for the study were chosen at random. All lived on the East coast for at least part of their life. (This may make the findings less universal as rural American families are somewhat different that urban American families, but I thought the author did find a lot to study that is relevant to all women). I think all of us would benefit from reading the summaries because they show difficult choices and how each woman made choices based on the situation. After reading about other people's reality, I find it impossible to criticize or condemn. I felt like I almost could see these women the way God sees them from above. I don't know of any other book that really attempts to explain the realities of life for average American women who are trying to juggle family responsibilities with career opportunities. At each "phase" of life we see our place in the world differently and develop common aspirations. Levinson was really interested in finding the commonalities of adult development and grouping them into "phases." I think his work was fascinating yet I wonder if women have changed significantly over the last 20 years as the traditional family structure has begun to disintegrate and the opportunities for women have opened up. His research was done in the late '80s and published in the '90s If reality hasn't really changed for women than his study would be more relevant as a "template" for understanding domestic life. If things have changed significantly than his work marks a benchmark for measuring society's movement toward a new reality.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this the first time in my mid to late 20s and it was a great book to read when you analytically process life and all the goings on of becoming an adult. He studies the lives of many women broken into separate decades of life. It discusses the challenges and choices each make in regard to getting a college degree, graduate degree, getting married, launching a career, or starting a family -or -deciding to wait on any and all of those, and why and how those women chose to do so and how those choices impacts their lives. Also easy to flip through and go directly to specific age ranges if a reader wants to read a particular section based on their age and or career path/ life choices.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like reading 10 short autobiographies at once. Highly anecdotal, but can gauge some interesting life lessons, albeit often very time period specific (the ethos of the 60s)

[Mi Tra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first attempt to study the cycle of women's lives, that deserves 5 stars!

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this book. It had been recommended to me by a life coach back in 2011. It took me some time to get my hands on a copy. I couldn't get it from the library. It is a textbook of sorts about an investigation of the age-linked patterns of adult development that appear to be present in both men and women. Levinson published The Seasons of a Man's Life in 1978 and discovered parallels with respect to the sexes and the "seasons" that make up our development. Levinson died before this book was published. His wife was his research partner and she finished this book.

I think much of the subjects' experiences were dated and didn't accurately reflect today's situation or mine in particular but it gave me a framework to critique my life. Although reference is made throughout the book to the age of the subjects, there is no reference to the date the interviews were done. As a result, I was not able to determine whether someone was interviewed at 25 years old in 1970, at 40 years old in 1980 or what was the "current prevailing culture" was at the time of those interviews. Levinson admits that society is making a painfully slow shift towards gender equality.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this in Career Counseling class: I found this book to be lacking hope all the round. Although it had an interesting outline of adult development for women, it seemed as though that most of the sample stories picked lacked any sort of hope for women to ever succeed and have a fulfilled life. I would have liked to see more women willing to go after their dreams and able to balance a healthy family life as well--but I guess that's a more modern term and seeing as this was written in the eighties. The fact that I didn't finish it shows that it wouldn't be on the top of my list.

[Anna]

gerontology, about woman's aging

[Phillip Moffitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explores the challenges career women face in breaking down barriers in formerly “male” occupations and in balancing work-life pressures.