The Seasons of a Woman's Life [Paperback]

Daniel J. Levinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 1997

"A HIGHLY NUANCED PORTRAIT, in every shade of gray, of individual women negotiating the transitions of what Levinson calls early adulthood *ages 18 to 45."

*The New York Times Book Review



Nearly twenty years ago, esteemed Yale psychologist Daniel J. Levinson wrote the groundbreaking classic, The Seasons of a Man's Life, which became the stimulus for a revolution in thinking about life passages, helping thousands of men make sense of their own lives. Now it is womens' turn. Based on exhaustive interviews with a diverse group of forty-five women, The Seasons of a Woman's Life completes and substantiates Levinson's thesis: that all human beings go right on developing throughout their lives in a pattern of amazing inevitability.



Firmly grounded in original scientific research, The Seasons of a Woman's Life is unusual in being not only vividly readable but a rich source of insights and consolation. It speaks with uncanny directness to the dreams, emotional crises, inexplicable feelings, social conflicts, and psychological upheavals that mark each woman's life course. Every woman will recognize *and find comfort in recognizing *the deep shape of her own life in the pattern it outlines, from Early Adult Transition (ages 17 to 22) to the Mid-life Transition (ages 40 to 45) and beyond. Alive with the voices of real women, perceptive and sympathetic, this book is destined *like its predecessor *to become a classic.



"AFFIRMING AND ILLUMINATING . . . PSYCHOLOGICALLY RICH."

*San Jose Mercury News



"HELPFUL AND ENLIGHTENING."

*Booklist



"GROUNDBREAKING."

*Feminist Bookstore News

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his popular Seasons of a Man's Life (1978), Yale psychology professor Levinson (who died in 1994) postulated that adult men undergo a series of distinct developmental phases separated by calm periods. This sequel, a collaboration with his wife, focuses on women's psychosocial growth from the late teens to middle age (around age 45). It builds on interviews conducted in the early 1980s with 45 subjects-15 New Haven-area homemakers, 15 N.Y.C. corporate-financial career women and 15 academics in the New York-Boston corridor. Not surprisingly, the homemakers found traditional patterns difficult to sustain and often paid a big price in restrictions on self-development; career women experienced considerable stress and difficulty in breaking down barriers in formerly "male" occupations and in pushing for a more equitable division of housework. In contrast to the earlier book, this sequel's plodding, academic style and narrower focus may deter some readers, yet the outspoken oral testimonies convey a sense of women negotiating the challenges of career, love, marriage and family. 30,000 first printing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Levinson's earlier work, The Seasons of a Man's Life (LJ 4/1/78), is a classic of adult development studies. It also has had a profound popular impact as the basis for Gail Sheehy's Passages (LJ 5/15/76), a reworking of Levinson's research. The current book is something of a disappointment. The main thesis?that the 45 women interviewed, like the men in the earlier book, went through alternating periods of tumultuous "structure building" followed by relatively stable "maintenance" periods?is not well supported by the extensive quotations from the women themselves. Instead, they seem to be constantly in the process of defining themselves and their needs and attempting to carve out space for self-expression in lives filled with heavy demands from work and family life. This is not as important a book as The Seasons of a Man's Life but much more thoughtful than Passages. (Sheehy's latest, New Passages, LJ 8/95, concerns the years beyond 50, which Levinson does not cover.) This title, flawed as it is, is recommended for most academic and public libraries since it has few competitors in an area of interest to many patrons.?Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (February 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345311744
• ISBN-13: 978-0345311740
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.2 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seasons Endure, August 10, 2001

By 

Caprice Niccoli-Waller (Hendersonville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Seasons of a Woman's Life (Paperback)

I began this book with genuine interest, but some trepidation after reading the previous and negative customer reviews. I have been compelled to write a review myself because I so thoroughly disagree with those reviews and hope to encourage others to explore the book for what it may offer them. In the book, the Levinsons share, discuss, and analyse the autobiographies of 45 diverse women. These stories are used to propose that adult development follows a somewhat consistent pattern, that is, is made up of predictable stages in a fashion similar to child development---each stage representing the struggle to solve particular developmental "problems" or issues. Like child development, the validity of these proposed stages, the factors that bring each stage about, and their consistency across adults will require a great deal of further study. I think it is possible that a good deal of the stage-like structure is simply due to the numerical system we use, that we spend 10 years being 30-something and 10 years being 40-something, and that these changes in numerical label evoke self evaluation--nothing in the Levinson's book denies this possibility. But regardless of whether further research supports this proposed structure in part or in its entirety, I think the book has much to offer. In viewing the lives of so many other women, and from the book's vantage point, I was able to step back and view my own life more objectively and to better articulate my own questions about my past decisions, current struggles, and future goals. Certainly no one life mirrored my own, but in their collective reflection I saw many aspects of myself and my life. The previous reviewers discounted the value of the book on the grounds that it was so outdated that the women represented could not speak to their modern lives and issues. Does 20 years really render human experience obsolete? Can it be that our mothers have nothing to say about the experience of Woman that can enrich and resonate with our own expereinces? This premise questions the utility of studying history altogether and is one I cannot support. I think that to ignore the commonalities that exist between thier lives and ours is self-centered, short-sighted, and it appears, even defensive. Women may presently have more freedom and opportunities than ever before, but the struggle between the many roles that women may now play has perhaps only intensified with added freedom. Keep in mind that our gender now celebrates women CEOs and yet has made Martha Stewart a mega-millionaire. The battle between domestic and professional drives is far from over. Perhaps by bearing witness to this battle taking place in others, we can hope to survive our own with fewer losses.

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing., December 21, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seasons of a Woman's Life (Hardcover)

This was an extremely disappointing book, especially in view of my admiration for Levinson's earlier work on men. Despite a few nuggets of useful insight, such as (1) many women never love their husbands, even on their wedding day, and (2) women with careers almost always make the career their highest priority, followed by children and marriage, in that order, the rest of the book is an extremely tedious account of the lives of 45 women. Levinson chose 15 homemakers, 15 businesswomen, and 15 academic women, all middle-aged in the early 1980s (the data here is 15 years old!) and uses them to generalize about all women in all generations. His major conclusion is that women's lives follow the same pattern as men's, but his demonstration is not convincing. He seems to take anything that happens in the woman's life as evidence for his theory. As mentioned above, all the women were middle-aged in the early 1980s, and thus were of the generation born in the 1930s and early 40s. This generation was raised in a pre- feminist environment and were already established in their life structures when the women's movement began. It is difficult to believe that women of later generations would have similar life stories. Furthermore, the choice of groups excludes some important types of women, most particularly (1) women in traditionally feminine occupations, such as as nurses and schoolteachers, and (2) self-employed small-business women or professionals. This exclusion may be deliberate, as to include these women might serve to undermine the ideology of the authors, which is orthodox gender feminist. The women portrayed complain of their lives as bored homemakers or sufferers of employment discrimination. Representation from the groups mentioned might have found that women can find fulfilling lives in other contexts. Also, the book needs to be followed up by a study of women who grew up in a post-feminist culture.

10 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst book about the adult experience I've ever read!, May 12, 1999

By 

andie ([e-mail] (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Seasons of a Woman's Life (Paperback)

I began this book with much anticipation. After the first chapter, I was offended and disappointed. But I kept reading hoping it would get better. It didn't. The author interviews only 45 women and bases his theories on loosely held evidence. I don't know how I am going to finish this book, but I have to becausee it's a required text for a college course. As a woman and student, I am thoroughly offended and don't regard any of Levinson's ideas as "ground breaking". His methods are unscientific and he is a rather outdated fool.