Revising Herself: Women's Identity from College to Midlife

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In 1972, Ruthellen Josselson was a young psychologist fascinated by the riddle of how a woman creates an identity and chooses one path over another in lifeparticularly in the face of the nascent feminist movement, which challenged as never before the traditional role models of earlier generations. Selecting at random thirty young women in their last year of college, Josselson undertook a groundbreaking study that would follow these womens personal odysseys over the next twentytwo years, from graduation to midlife. What she learned about the ways women reinvent themselves in an everchanging world is the subject of Revising Herself , a mythshattering look at both a unique generation of American women on the front lines of wrenching social change, and at the conflicts and compromises facing women today. With stunning candor and hardwon insight, the ordinary (and anonymous) women in Josselsons study reveal how much more complex and interesting real womens lives are than the onedimensional stereotypes often portrayed in the media. Dismissing a traditional stage theory of development as overly simplistic, Josselson identifies four trajectories that women take from adolescence to adulthood. Guardians are the good girlshigh achieving and committed to fulfilling their familys expectations, but rigid in outlook and resistant to change. Pathmakers are not afraid of risk or commitment, striving to balance their own needs with others. The often idealistic Searchers are overwhelmed by choice and unable to make commitments, while Drifters live only for the moment, avoiding choice and an exploration of identity. Reflecting the degree to which women take risks, make choices, and form commitments, these paths form a foundation for adulthoodbut they also lead to surprises at midlife, Guardians seem strikingly able to cut loose from earlier traditional patterns, while many Drifters have found themselves, sometimes in quite traditional ways. And coming of age just as the feminist movement gathered momentum, the women in Josselsons study were the first to confront many contemporary issues not faced by their mothers, or their mothers mothers How does an Irish Catholic contemplate an abortion? How does a woman whose parents believe education is wasted on a daughter find the will to apply to medical school? In examining these questions and others, Josselson shows that the forging of a womans identitywhatever her pathis ongoing, a balancing of the need for selfassertion against the equally compelling need for relationships. Women create their identities along the seams of both competence and connection and continually revise what they have made. Allowing women to define themselves in their own terms, Revising Herself holds up a provocative mirror in which readers can reflect upon their own life choices. Whether a Guardian, Pathmaker, Searcher, or Drifter, readers will recognize themselves in these womens experiences and gain new insight into how we construct our identities over a lifetime.

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