Secret Paths: Women in the New Midlife

Midlife for women was once viewed as a ``dead end.'' Nowadays, women's 40s and 50s are considered a ``developmental phase,'' notes Apter (Altered Loves), who traces the process by which ``older women become more assertive and more content'' and often come to be ``seen by both men and women to be stronger than men.'' In a mixed sampling of interviews and observations of 80 American and British women aged 18 to 80, whom she classifies into four types--traditional, innovative, expansive and protesting--Apter cites the psychological steps in their developmental journeys. Downplaying many of the myths associated with women's aging (men do not have this problem, claims the author), she perceives a commonality in the patterns of development, though each individual goes through her unique causative crisis. The root of these crises, according to Apter, is the burial of their own voices and visions at certain crossroads of life. This innovative study emphasizes skills women can use to create new visions for themselves. Author tour. (June)