Midlife Crisis at 30: How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation--And What to Do about It
- Book Review,
by Lia Macko, Kerry Rubin
From Publishers Weekly
Successful, high-energy media professionals Macko (a CNBC producer) and Rubin (a CNN producer) sensed there was a problem plaguing women of a certain age-the early 30s. So many of them were wondering, in the midst of lives that were supposedly on track, why they felt "so miserable." In Part One of this volume, the authors attempt to identify and label the components of 30-something angst, which include changing career parameters, the question of when (or whether) to get married and have a family, and how to find real fulfillment versus a great-paying job. Then anecdotes from real women comfort readers by helping them realize that they aren't alone in their difficult-to-define struggles. Even better, however, are the stories from well-known women in Part Two, "The New Girls Club: Your Dream of Mentors." In this section, women like Judy Blume, fitness guru Denise Austen and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison explain how they dealt with the issues facing them in their 30s and, in many cases, tell readers how they completely re-vamped their lives to become hugely successful, personally and professionally. These triumphant stories should inspire women in their 30s, and anyone else contemplating a serious life overhaul. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"As I read Midlife at 30, I felt a wave of relief: I'm not the only one in a panic at the doorstep of my 30th birthday! It's about time someone exposed the underside of 'having it all' and the pressure to follow in our supermoms' steps."--Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls
Review
"As I read Midlife at 30, I felt a wave of relief: I'm not the only one in a panic at the doorstep of my 30th birthday! It's about time someone exposed the underside of 'having it all' and the pressure to follow in our supermoms' steps."--Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls
Book Description
At 30 ...
Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was a stay-at-home mother. Founder and CEO of Oxygen Media Geraldine Laybourne was working at a public interest think tank for teachers. Political strategist Mary Matalin was a first-year law student-- and about to drop out. And months prior to her thirtieth birthday, financial strategist and best-selling author Suze Orman was working as a waitress, making $400 a month.
Decades later, these Boomer women and many others have reached the pinnacles of their professions. So why do Gen-X/Y women feel such pressure to have the perfect career, body, husband, and kids by the time they are at or around 30? Why has 30 become such a make-or-break moment?
As the generation that came of age after the most visible glass ceilings had been broken, Gen-X/Y women were raised to believe in futures without limitations. Yet, as journalists Lia Macko and Kerry Rubin reveal in their fascinating investigation, many women have distorted the well-intentioned empowerment messages of their youth and are quietly blaming themselves when they fail to overcome the very real obstacles that still exist in our society. Though many Gen-X/Y women are hitting the same roadblocks at the same time, instead of questioning what's wrong with the system-- as Boomer women did in their twenties-- they're questioning their own "choices."
Searching for solutions, Macko and Rubin have enlisted the aid of the New Girls' Club, a group of successful, satisfied women who've lived through their own crossroads moments, earned their battle scars, and now share their stories and strategies. While today's young women may indeed be a generation in the middle of a Midlife Crisis at 30, they now have a dream team of mentors to help guide them through it.
From the Inside Flap
At 30 ...
Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was a stay-at-home mother. Founder and CEO of Oxygen Media Geraldine Laybourne was working at a public interest think tank for teachers. Political strategist Mary Matalin was a first-year law student-- and about to drop out. And months prior to her thirtieth birthday, financial strategist and best-selling author Suze Orman was working as a waitress, making $400 a month.
Decades later, these Boomer women and many others have reached the pinnacles of their professions. So why do Gen-X/Y women feel such pressure to have the perfect career, body, husband, and kids by the time they are at or around 30? Why has 30 become such a make-or-break moment?
As the generation that came of age after the most visible glass ceilings had been broken, Gen-X/Y women were raised to believe in futures without limitations. Yet, as journalists Lia Macko and Kerry Rubin reveal in their fascinating investigation, many women have distorted the well-intentioned empowerment messages of their youth and are quietly blaming themselves when they fail to overcome the very real obstacles that still exist in our society. Though many Gen-X/Y women are hitting the same roadblocks at the same time, instead of questioning what's wrong with the system-- as Boomer women did in their twenties-- they're questioning their own "choices."
Searching for solutions, Macko and Rubin have enlisted the aid of the New Girls' Club, a group of successful, satisfied women who've lived through their own crossroads moments, earned their battle scars, and now share their stories and strategies. While today's young women may indeed be a generation in the middle of a Midlife Crisis at 30, they now have a dream team of mentors to help guide them through it.
LIA MACKO has an executive and senior news management background. She co-executive produced a Newsweek/MSNBC Town Hall Meeting on race relations in America, hosted by NBC's Brian Williams, and has served as a senior editorial producer for MSNBC specials hosted by Tom Brokaw, including Silicon Summits I and II and A Gun Summit, featuring President Clinton. Macko helped launch other MSNBC programs and served as a senior producer for CNN's American Morning with Paula Zahn as well as for Court TV's prime-time news broadcast.
Macko graduated magna cum laude from American University and obtained a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1996. She has contributed to the National Law Journal and other national legal trade publications and provided a law and technology column to MSNBC.com, titled "Tech Ethics." Macko appeared on the cover of the September 2000 issue of Working Woman magazine profiling "20 under 30: The Ones to Watch." She lives in New York City.
KERRY RUBIN worked her way up the ranks at CNN from a teleprompter operator to a producer of news magazine stories, special projects, and lead interviews featuring the network's top talent. She has worked on the development and launch of new programs and has covered stories ranging from international terrorism and presidential elections to design and film. She is currently a segment producer on CNN's American Morning. Rubin graduated with honors from the University of Rochester in 1993. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband, Adam.
Jacket design by Chris Rhoads
Jacket photos copyright of Christopher Isenberg/Photonica and of Burke/Triolo/Getty Images
From the Back Cover
Is 30 the new 50?
In Midlife Crisis at 30, journalists Lia Macko and Kerry Rubin uncover a growing phenomenon in our culture: A substantial number of the 58 million young women of Generation X/Y experience intense work/life conflicts very early in their careers, often before children or marriage are even part of the equation.
Drawing on the latest research, census data, and conversations with more than a hundred college-educated 25- to 37-year-old women, Macko and Rubin investigate the changing social, economic, and political factors that are leading scores of young women to ask themselves, Why is my life so out of sync with my expectations? Is the path I've chosen leading me in the wrong direction?
As part of their investigation for answers to these questions, Macko and Rubin assembled the New Girls' Club, a dream team of mentors. Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro; Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon; financial strategist and best-selling author Suze Orman; Oxygen Media founder and CEO Geraldine Laybourne; political strategist Mary Matalin; CNN's Paula Zahn; best-selling authors Judy Blume, Dr. Susan Love, and Gail Evans; and many others, share their crossroads moments and strategies for moving forward with this next generation of great women poised to take their professional and personal lives to unprecedented heights.
"As I read Midlife at 30, I felt a wave of relief: I'm not the only one in a panic at the doorstep of my 30th birthday! It's about time someone exposed the underside of 'having it all' and the pressure to follow in our supermoms' steps."
--Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls
About the Author
Lia Macko has an executive and senior news management background. She co-executive produced a Newsweek/MSNBC Town Hall Meeting on race relations in America, hosted by NBC's Brian Williams, and has served as a senior editorial producer for MSNBC specials hosted by Tom Brokaw, including Silicon Summits I and II and A Gun Summit, featuring President Clinton. Macko helped launch other MSNBC programs and served as a senior producer for CNN's American Morning with Paula Zahn as well as for Court TV's prime-time news broadcast.
Macko graduated magna cum laude from American University and obtained a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1996. She has contributed to the National Law Journal and other national legal trade publications and provided a law and technology column to MSNBC.com, titled "Tech Ethics." Macko appeared on the cover of the September 2000 issue of Working Woman magazine profiling "20 under 30: The Ones to Watch." She lives in New York City.
Kerry Rubin worked her way up the ranks at CNN from a teleprompter operator to a producer of news magazine stories, special projects, and lead interviews featuring the network's top talent. She has worked on the development and launch of new programs and has covered stories ranging from international terrorism and presidential elections to design and film. She is currently a segment producer on CNN's American Morning. Rubin graduated with honors from the University of Rochester in 1993. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband, Adam.
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