On Women Turning Fifty: Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries [Paperback]

Cathleen Rountree (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 1994

On Women Turning Fifty honors the new faces of aging with powerful, positive images of fiftysomething women who share stories of mid-life discovery. Accomplished by beautiful photographs, these candid and engaging interviews reveal women whose challenges, conflicts, and triumphs are reshaping our attitudes toward work, relationships, and personal growth. From Gloria Steinem, Isabel Allende, Ellen Burstyn, and Mary Ellen Mark to single-parent school teacher Deanne Burke and breast cancer survivor Barbara Eddy, the diverse voices in On Women Turning Fifty offer exhilarating models of confidence, courage, and celebration.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Women in their 50s may feel a sense of liberation from the physical bond of menstruation and the burden of various socio-political attitudes, experiencing a release of creative energy including the sexual, shows Rountree ( Coming into Our Fullness ) in this upbeat collection of profiles and first-person narratives of 18 women who will soon turn 50. Literary acclaim and fulfilling love in a second marriage, for example, crowned Chilean novelist-journalist Isabel Allende's adventurous life, and PBS star reporter Charlayne Hunter-Gault is reaping the fruits of her struggles against racism and sexism. Also exemplifying feminist Gloria Steinem's belief that "aging after 50 is an exciting new period . . . another country," are other, less famous women like the frustrated veterinarian who resigned from a clinic to become her own boss as a "traveling vet." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Cathleen Rountree is a writer, photographer, artist, and lecturer. The author of several books, including Coming into Our Fullness: On Women Turning 40, On Women Turning 50: Celebrating Midlife Discovery, and 50 Ways to Meet Your Lover, she conducts workshops throughout the United States to encourage women to discover and celebrate their creative and spiritual resources.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; Later Printing edition (April 22, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062507311
• ISBN-13: 978-0062507310
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars women speak out about their experience of turning 50, August 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: On Women Turning Fifty: Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries (Paperback)

This is a collection of interviews of famous and not-so-famous women who have navigated their fiftieth birthdays. The women as individuals may be described as admirable, fascinating, witty, and even awesome (check out Dolores Huerta who has spent most of her adult life as a full-time human rights activist, living in poverty or near-poverty, while giving birth to 11 children--most of whom are now college graduates--and periodically catering to the demands of one of her three husbands). A more interesting aspect of this collection is what these women have in common. They each find this time in their lives more free, more focused on making a contribution to society, less focused on physical appearance and pleasing others, and less concerned (if not unconcerned) with having men in their lives. Tabra Tunoa, a jewelry designer and manufacturer, said, "You waste a lot of time in your thirties trying to look twenty and in your forties trying to look thirty"--one comment from among several in the interviews which imply that the forties are for clearning up the vestiges of denial of age, and the fifties are for embracing its gifts. Said Gloria Steinem, "I learned that to be defiant about age may be better than despair--it's energizing--but it is not progress." Rountree has done a fine job of asking the right questions, eliciting illuminating answers, and photographing 18 women who are worth hearing from.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational stories for women over 50, December 29, 2001

By 

Kate McMurry "Young Adult Author" (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: On Women Turning Fifty: Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries (Paperback)

The author of On Women Turning 50, Cathleen Rountree, is an artist, wrier and lecturer specializing in women's issues. Her book is made up of photos of and interviews with 18 women in their 50's and above. Some of these women are famous, some not, but all of them are fascinating.

I really enjoyed the portraits in this book because they do not aim at a Vogue-model, fake-beauty effect. Instead, they artistically reveal each woman's character, personality and wisdom. The prose narration is also excellent, because Rountree presents each woman's experience with growing older in her own words. The result is that this book reads like 18 short, interrelated autobiographies.

There aren't a lot of good books out there geared at encouraging women over 50 in a sexist society that tells women they are worthless without youth and beauty. Of those I've seen so far, this is the best written and most respectful of older women. As such, I recommend it not just to women over 50, but to the men and younger women in their lives who love them.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and Significant, March 27, 2006

By 

Phyllis Le Chat "Le Chat" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: On Women Turning Fifty: Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries (Paperback)

I just happened to notice this book on the shelf at a bookstore, flipped it open to one of the brief interviews, and began to read about a breast cancer survivor who had turned her experience into a career helping other women find their own individually appropriate breast prosthetics. Isn't this inspiring? I thought. This book is filled with the experiences and thoughts of women who've entered their fifties, stepped back from their lives for a moment of introspection, and agreed to share their insights and personal opinions on the process of maturing as part of the "baby-boomer" generation. I have learned so many little details about what can happen physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to women of a "certain age", and how to spin straw into gold. At times humorous, poignant, radical, thought provoking, but always articulated with sincerity, sometimes with poetry. This is one of those golden books that shares promises fulfilled and achievements that go outside the standard definition of the word "success". Like sitting down with a really inspiring friend who encourages me to remember, as the saying goes in Zimbabwe, "If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing."