How does it happen that a man like myself at the culmination of his career, wishing to choose wisely the few remaining projects to which he can devote himself, should spend fifteen years attempting to understand the adult development of women? It is partially the legacy of a mother who left her Russian shtetl alone in 1890, at the age of 14, worked in the garment industry sweatshops of London and New York City for many years, became a union organizer and a passionate advocate of women’s rights, and, after marrying and becoming a mother at 34, spent the next sixty years as a housewife and private feminist. It comes, too, from a father who admired and shared his wife’s feminism while also wanting her traditionalism. Perhaps the most important result is not that I have incorporated both the feminism and the traditionalism—but that I have had a keen awareness of these contradictory themes in myself, in other men and women, and in female-male relationships. That awareness has been intensified and developed further by the current phase of the long-term gender revolution in which I believe our species is now engaged.
My research on adult development began in 1967. Eleven years later I published The Seasons of a Man’s Life. Exploring the research literature, I concluded that very little was known about the adult life course and that the standard research methods (questionnaires, surveys, tests, structured interviews) would be of limited value in exploring this new field. I chose instead to develop a new method of Intensive Biographical Interviewing through which individual lives could be examined in greater depth. The use of this method limited the sample size to a maximum of forty. It seemed to me that there were significant gender differences in adult life and development. To include twenty men and twenty women would do justice to neither and might result—as it often has in the past—in an allegedly “general” theory based primarily on the evidence from men. My final decision to study men rather than women was based largely on personal considerations: I had an intense desire to understand my own adult development.
The seeds of this book lie in that earlier one. While deciding to focus initially on men, I promised myself to do a second, parallel study of women. The present book fulfills that promise. The study of women is central in my vision of my own work and of the field of adult development in general. As I wrote in The Seasons of a Man’s Life, “It is essential to study the adult development of both genders if we are to understand either.” We cannot adequately understand men by the study of men alone, nor women solely by the study of women. It is also important—perhaps essential until our footing is more secure—that women and men work together in the study of each gender.
I have been keenly aware that I began the study of women with concepts and findings derived chiefly from the study of men. I do not believe that it is possible today for anyone, male or female, to undertake the study of women’s development without being heavily influenced by concepts, assumptions, and ways of thinking based primarily upon the experience and writing of men. A strongly male-centered view of adult life has for centuries been prevalent in our scientific and cultural institutions. It will take time, effort, and sharpened awareness of gender issues to achieve a more balanced view.
In The Seasons of a Man’s Life, it was difficult to say which aspects of the theory and findings were true of human development generally and which held for men only. The present study provided the opportunity (and indeed the necessity) of arriving at a clearer distinction. My primary aim was to tap as directly as possible into the lives of women. I wanted to generate new concepts based on the actualities of women’s lives, without losing what was valuable from the study of men. Conversely, I wanted to make appropriate use of what I already knew, without blinding myself to new evidence and insights. Work on this dilemma led me to explore two questions of basic importance in the study of development:
(1) Can we create a gender-free conception of adult human development, a framework that captures what is most essentially human and common to both genders?
(2) Within that general framework, can we create a gender-specific conception of the adult development of women? This is the driving question of the present book.
I have made strenuous efforts to overcome the limitations stemming from my own gender and from my previous study of men. These efforts began in the early 1970s, when I was engaged in the study of men. I encouraged Wendy Stewart to do her doctoral dissertation on the adult life structure development of women, and was an adviser on her study, one of the first to deal solely with women. A few years later, I was similarly involved in a dissertation by Susan Taylor Jackson. I also consulted with Janice Ruffin on her dissertation, which studied the adult development of African-American women. These studies indicated that my theory of adult development held in its broad outlines for women as well as men, while also giving evidence of some important gender differences within the general framework.
In 1979, a year after the publication of The Seasons of a Man’s Life, I began exploratory work on this project. By one of those curious synchronicities in human life, I was approached just then by the Financial Women’s Association of New York (FWA). The members of the Financial Women’s Association are women executives and professionals working in the financial district and corporate headquarters and banks of New York City. Their level of achievement and income would make a large part of the population of the United States envious. The FWA was interested in sponsoring and raising funds for a study of the kind that I was planning. After canvassing the field, they came up with a list of researchers on which I was the only male. Other things being equal, they would have chosen a female. However, they were interested in careers and, like me, wanted to place career development in the context of individual life development. They felt, as I did, that an intensive study using in-depth interviewing would be more productive than standard survey research. They supported my interest in comparing businesswomen with other samples. When the FWA proposed to sponsor my work, I felt that I had passed an important test. And, in deciding to accept, I understood that much more than funding was involved. It made historical as well as personal sense to me that this project should involve a cross-gender collaboration in its sponsorship. In the years since then I have come to understand more deeply the importance of cross-gender collaboration in human life generally, and certainly in the study of development.
My thanks to the committee members of the FWA who planned the study with me: Patricia (Tosh) Barron, Susan Fisher, Jo Ann Heffernan Heisen, Madie Ivy, Ilene Leff, Melinda Lloyd, and Candice Straight. Tosh Barron kept the vision of this project alive through several years of fund raising. Contributions from many corporate sources allowed the research to become a reality. My thanks for their generous support to the following corporations: American Can Company, American Standard, Bankers Trust, Colgate-Palmolive, General Electric Foundation, INA, Marsh & McLennan, McKinsey & Company, Ogilvy & Mather, Reader’s Digest Association, Seiden & De Cuevas, Sperry & Hutchinson, Sun Oil, Textron, U.S. Home, Xerox, and John Whitehead Foundation. In addition to contributing funds to this project, Xerox also donated a word processor on which the book manuscript was typed. My thanks to Jim McGuire of Xerox, who kept the Xerox 860 running in good order for over a decade.
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association entered the project as a co-sponsor in 1981. Their support expanded the scope of the study to include the sample of academic women. I am grateful to Peggy Heim, senior research officer of TIAA, for her support of the project. My gratitude goes to Carol Schreiber, who has been a supportive friend and colleague in this enterprise. She gave generously of her time and helped in the fund raising.
Early in 1980 I had the funds to hire an initial staff and begin the interviewing. The interviewing was done between 1980 and 1982. Cross-gender collaboration was important in every aspect of this project. I formed a staff group of eight women and three men, besides myself. We varied in age, social origins, race, ethnicity, discipline, and point of view. The staff members included Lesley Bottoms, Ann Dahl, Elizabeth Dickey, Kelin Gersick, Winston Gooden, Judy Levinson, Maria Levinson, Judith Meyers, Susan Taylor Jackson, Edwin Wallace, and MaryBeth Whiton.
Our weekly staff meetings were devoted chiefly to the discussion of biographical interviewing, of individual lives, and of theoretical issues. There was often heated controversy about the relevance of various concepts from my own and others’ theories. As the work progressed, we found that there were at least as many differences in outlook and insight among the women, and among the men, as between women and men. The intensive study of other lives led each of us to a closer examination of our own lives. We became more aware of the complex meanings of gender in ourselves and in our relationships with women and men. The staff meetings thus furthered not only the research but also our own intellectual and emotional growth. The final product has been crucially influenced by the group effort. Later, the writing of the book was shaped and colored by my collaboration with Judy Levinson. From the beginning to end, then, this has been a bi-gendered effort.
Each staff member on this study made a heroic effort to grasp the life experience of each subject and to avoid the trap of assuming that women’s lives and experiences are either totally the same as men’s or totally different. I want to thank each staff member for her or his part in this effort and for all contributions to the research. My thanks also to staff member Judith Meyers for her coding and analysis of the questionnaire data.
In the summer of 1982 the interviewing was completed, the funds depleted, and the staff group dispersed. Since then, this project has essentially been a collaboration between myself and my wife, Judy Levinson. Together we analyzed individual lives, compared samples, and wrote this book. She has been my partner in this enterprise from the start. Judy has made a major contribution to this book; she developed the method of biographical reconstruction to analyze the qualitative interviews and wrote all of the vignettes. She also made significant contributions to the theoretical work. She has helped me personally to understand the elemental conflict that exists between women and men, as well as the forces that bring us together and make each gender much more than it could be without the other.
For me personally this project has been a profound developmental experience. I have been living for fifteen years with forty-five women in my head, trying to see life from their perspective and to work out my relationship with them. Through this biographical work, I have come to see more clearly how much women and men have to offer each other. I see, too, how strong are the barriers that separate men from women, and the feminine from the masculine within the self. I believe I have been able to claim more of the feminine in myself without losing what I value of the masculine.
Many individuals and institutions have been of great help over the past fifteen years. My appreciation to the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University. Boris M. Astrachan, then Director of the Connecticut Mental Health Center, has been a valued colleague and friend; this study has benefited in countless ways from his personal interest and administrative support.
The day-to-day operation of this project was managed with great competence by Immaculata Ferrucci and Arlene O’Brien. Bonnie Grawoig made excellent transcriptions of the interviews. These three women helped to make the research run more smoothly, and I thank them.
I wish to thank anonymously the academic institutions who welcomed us and allowed us to conduct questionnaire surveys and the interviewing. Several faculty members and administrators were of essential help to me on this project. Their names must remain anonymous as well, but they have my deepest thanks and appreciation.
My greatest thanks go to the forty-five pioneering women in this study who shared their life stories. They sacrificed much in an attempt to lead fuller lives more on their own terms and to create the basis for more choice for tomorrow’s daughters and sons. I cannot thank you by name but I express my gratitude to you anonymously for the gifts of your experiences and insights.
Daniel J. Levinson
Daniel Jacob Levinson died on April 12, 1994. He had completed the manuscript of this book several months before he died, and since then I have worked with the book’s editor, Charles A. Elliott, on the final editorial process. Elliott has been a wise and very patient editor.
So many friends and family members have helped me through this painful and important process of completing the book manuscript, and I wish to express my appreciation to them. Florence Ficocelli, Jeannie Hayes, and Stella Palm have been the best of friends. My love and thanks to Daniel’s family, especially to his sons, Mark and Douglas Levinson, and to his grandchildren, Amber, Michael, Matthew, and David. My love and thanks also to my family: Nan, Karen, Jaime, Arthur, Reta, and especially my nephew-son Dan Gawlak, who reminded my heart to laugh again. My love and gratitude go also to my nephew-son Bryan Gawlak, who stayed with me during those initial dark days and weeks after Daniel’s death. Bryan helped to keep my spirit alive, and he helped me remain engaged in life. He worked as my assistant in the final editorial process. I could not have done this work without him.
The manuscript received the careful scrutiny of Bryan J. Gawlak, Connie J. G. Gersick, Kelin E. Gersick, Douglas F. Levinson, Dorian S. Newton, Peter M. Newton, Carol T. Schreiber, and Susan Taylor Jackson. I am grateful for their helpful suggestions and emotional support. Each gave generously to the editing of the manuscript, and it is a better book because of their contributions.
Daniel had not made final reference notations in the book manuscript. The help of Peter Newton, Carol Schreiber, and Susan Taylor Jackson were of central importance in my effort to make reference notations. I thank them and apologize for any references that have been omitted.
My eternal love and gratitude go to my husband, Daniel, with whom I had a most remarkable journey. For Daniel and me, love and work were inextricably intertwined. We formed a collaborative partnership in the writing of this book that enriched each of our lives as well as our joint relationship. Daniel was the theoretician/writer, and I was the biographical reconstructor. Working on the completion of this book manuscript without Daniel has been a time of great sorrow and great joy, and it is my final gift to my beloved Daniel.
Daniel was a wise and gentle man who touched the hearts and lives of many. This book represents the final installment of his legacy to the world; his spirit will live on as long as his work has a relevance to other people’s work and lives and offers them something of value to help them on their journey through the seasons of life.
Judy D. Levinson
Note: Over the years since the interviews were conducted for this research project, we have lost track of many of the women who were interviewed, as well as some staff members. If you participated in this project, please write to Judy Levinson, in care of the publisher, The Ballantine Publishing Group; I’d like to make sure you receive a copy of this book.