Gerson (No Man's Land
), a sociology professor at New York University, refers to those adults born after the women's movement of the 1970s as “the children of the gender revolution.” They are more likely than their predecessors to have experienced parents divorcing, a mother working outside the home, being raised by a single parent or living with a stepparent. How do such changes affect their expectations for intimate relationships? Gerson attempts to answer this question with life history interviews with 120 men and women living in the New York area. Although her nonrepresentative sample does not lend itself to statistical analysis, it provides a revealing look at a generation of reflective young adults struggling to construct a meaningful life in largely uncharted waters, uncertain, even skeptical, about the possibility of juggling career ambitions and romantic commitment. The author urges flexibility and forging “innovative pathways.” Even if the soft data is disappointing, the book is valuable for the abundance and candor of the testimony from this unmoored generation pioneering through radically altered conceptions of personal and professional life. (Dec.)
