Women Confronting Retirement: A Nontraditional Guide

From Booklist
Why publish a collection of thoughts about retirement from women? One, an inordinately large percentage of soon-to-retire baby boomers are career women. Two, this population represents the first large wave of females continuously in the workforce. And, three, women traditionally have not needed to confront the issues of work cessation, identity loss, and income diminution . . . until now. Responding to a posted request for thoughts and articles, 38 well-educated women in 32 separate articles voice their fears and hopes about the big "R," many of which are surprisingly similar. Editors Bauer-Maglin and Radosh divide comments into three sections: thinking about retirement, stages of retirement, and never retiring. It is intriguing to note that most segue into some form of both work and play, while still considering options such as Peace Corps volunteer or second careers. The dictate "follow your muse" infuses the articles by those who appear to be happiest after retiring from the workforce. Valuable life lessons. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Women Confronting Retirement showcases the voices of thirty-eight women from a wide range of professions, ages, and life situations as they confront the need to redefine who they are when they leave the workplace. The women of the Baby Boom generation were the first to enter the professional world in large numbers, and the first such generational cohort to encounter the challenges of retirement. The contributors urge women to reach for different approaches to this major stage of life, to find new self-images, to balance meaningful work and creative play, and to reform public policies to support enhanced opportunities for retirement. Many of these women were involved in the key activist movements of the sixties and seventies, and their work has often been an extension of their social commitment. Defining themselves through their careers, they have confronted traditional models at every stage of their lives and are now confronting their own negative stereotypes about retirement. The stories in this book compellingly chronicle the fears and hopes of women who have only begun to think about retirement, those who are in the process of retiring, some who have been retired for several years, and a few who have decided that retirement is not for them. Unlike traditional "how-to" books, Women Confronting Retirement makes clear that there are no right or wrong answers to the many questions this uncharted stage of life poses for women of the Baby Boom generation and those who follow. These women help us explore the next steps with the same courage they brought to every aspect of their lives before reaching retirement age.

About the Author
Nan Bauer-Maglin is the academic director of the City University of New York Baccalaureate Program at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She co-edited Women and Stepfamilies: Voices of Anger and Love, and 'Bad Girls/Good Girls': Women, Sex, and Power in the Nineties (Rutgers University Press). Alice Radosh has taught psychology at Brooklyn College, directed the New York City Mayor's Office of Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Services, and served as senior program officer at the Academy for Educational Development. She is now retired.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Bauer-Maglin (director, CUNY Graduate Ctr.) and Radosh, who has taught psychology at Brooklyn College, have compiled this timely volume just as the baby boomer women come into retirement age. The book offers 32 reflective essays and interviews, mostly by women who have, or who are about to, retire. Two-thirds are academics with university jobs that give them pension plans and opportunities to continue working in some form. Few of the essayists are facing hard economic choices beyond the age of 65. With the exception of some caregiving essays, the issues discussed lean toward leisure-class concerns (e.g., the loss of professional identity, doing meaningful work in retirement). Though generally lacking in diversity, the collection does feature a lesbian couple, a disabled Native American, and an African American single mom who won't be able to retire. This meditative, anecdotal approach presents many lively, enterprising women, some of whom have tried new adventures in retirement-Peace Corps volunteer, house renovator, horse breeder, and political activist. As a complement to Nancy Dailey's more academic and statistical study When Baby Boom Women Retire, this is recommended for larger public and academic libraries.-Janet Sassi, New York Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices