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Women over forty: Visions and reality
Book Reviews but informative. And most important, as a critique of an all too often distant and clouded experience, these books offer so much texture and detail as to make them in the best sense both demystifying and empowering documents. Department oJ Sociology, Brundeis Unicersiry, Wulrhum. MA. U.S.A.
IRVING KENNETH ZOLA
Women over Forty: Visions and Reality, by M. J. L. DAVIDSON and J. D. GRAMBS. Springer. NY. pp. 319.50 (paper) $11.95
1025
The book closes with a review of issues that need additional research. One of the key issues noted is the need to link women with their pasts, to help them appreciate their own history. Women need to appreciate not only where their weaknesses have been but where their strengths lie as well. Massachusetts General Institute of Health Profissions Massachussets General Hospital Boston, MA. U.S.A.
PHYLLIS
R.
SILVERMAN
R. BLOCK. 1981. 157
Women Over Forty is a well written review of recent sociological and psycl~ological literature about older women. It is valuable introductory text for any researcher interested in gerontology and in the lives of women. Block, Davidson and Grambs have collaborated in presenting a well organized and easy to read text that achieves its goal of raising the reader’s consciousness about the experience of older women. Most of the literature reviewed are reports on research, which the authors have classified under chapter headings such as: demographic profiles; images, menopause and sexuality; mental health and related issues; life situations; family relations and so forth. This classification makes the book easy to use as a reference. It is not clear why these authors have chosen to begin their review of older women with forty. There is an enormous spread in this population cohort, that includes women who were born before World War I and women who were born during World War II. Some of these women are grandmothers and great-grandmothers while others are becoming mothers for the first time as more women postpone their childbearing until they are older. It is difficult, therefore, to generalize about how these women approach their own aging. However, the authors correctly note that age may be less of a common denominator-for analyzing these experiences-than women’s attitudes towards themselves, and how they se-e themselves in the world. These attitudes may have more to do with life experience than with any specific age. They observe that to understand any one woman’s reaction, it is critical to consider her work experience, her education, her family and social network as well as her economic situation. The authors do try to identify common themes in all women’s experience. They suggest that over their life cycle most women will not occupy a single role, but will be constantly dealing with loss and change. For women every loss includes a role change. Role inconstancy pay be typical of the female experience and some researchers have observed that this may account for women’s resiliency in old age. Those women, who over a lifetime. have learned to handle these losses and role shifts successfully. seem to enjoy their old age more. Several studies reported on deal with women’s friendship networks, and point to the fact that women are beginning to re-evaluate their attitudes towards friendships with other women and to see these in more positive terms. In one study reported on, the concept of social sibling is proposed. Women are becoming more accepting of living in a single sex society, and of becoming more responsible for each other. One suggestion, to prevent the institutionalizing of the infirm elderly is to develop communal housing projects where people take care of each other. The authors point to the needs for greater institutional support that permits people to be more involved with each other rather than depending solely on experts and professionals for their care. They recognize the need for more research to understand the value of social supports and the involvement of the potential consumer in her own care.
The Menstrual Cycle: A Synthesis of Interdisciplimry Research, edited by ALICE J. DAN, EFFIE A. GRAHAMand CAROLP. BEECHER.Springer NY, 1980. 359 pp. S28.00 The Surgeon General’s Catalogue (1888) lists several thousand nineteenth-century studies of menstruation and associated psychological and physiological disorders. Roughly 300 articles on menstruation. broadly defined to include menarche. menopause, dysmenorrhea. amenorrhea. and menorrhagia. are cited in each of the last 10 yearly volumes of the Index Me&us. The card-catalogue of the Boston-Countway Medical Library has entries for 45 books on ‘menstruation’ published since 1960. Given these numbers, it at first seems surprising that the editors of The Menstrual Cycle: A Synthesis of Interdisciplinary Research claim that their work is a pioneering effort to break the taboo against menstrual cycle research (p. 1). The claim is not completely unwarranted, however. Though the book does not open up a hitherto unexplored area, it does rep resent an approach to the study of menstruation that lays aside old myths by revealing and encouraging new paths for research. Volume One of The Menstruul Cycle is a collection of articles the express aim being to redefine research programs in such a way that information about the menstrual cycle becomes more available and comprehensible to the women it affects. The book opens with a discussion of the ways in which science is determined by the theoretical biases of scientists, and with the claim that research on the menstrual cycle conducted to date has been limited by a ‘theoretical bias’ that defines events of the cycle as a pathology that must either be explained or explained-away (p. 12). It is argued that this bias has nr0dua.d two schools of research: a-‘traditional school’ that has directed its efforts toward discovery of the physiological bases of such sideeffects Of menstruation as moodiness, clumsiness, and cramps, and a more radical or ‘feminist school’ that has devoted its time to proving that woman’s nature is not biologically determined and to providing ‘social’ explanations for all the changes associated with the menstrual cycle. The contributors to The Menstrual Cycle want to dispel the notion that menstruation is pathology without dismissing biological studies as irrelevant or corrupt. They attempt to define the cycle as a complex b&social event, with physiological, psychological and sociological components and to study it in such a way that “the boundary between biological and social-psychological explanations becomes permeable*’ (p. 340). Most of the volume is devoted to studies that attempt to cross the boundary between the scientific and the socialscientific. These studies cover a variety of subjects, ranging from ‘Infraridian Rhythms in Oral Temperature before Human Menarche’ to ‘Premenstrual Changes in Mood, Personality, and Cognitive Function’ to ‘The Politics of Menopause’. There are great differences in the quality of articles and in the extent to which they rely on technical expertise. The studies are alike, however, in that they begin with the premise that no given change need occur during
IRVING KENNETH ZOLA
Women over Forty: Visions and Reality, by M. J. L. DAVIDSON and J. D. GRAMBS. Springer. NY. pp. 319.50 (paper) $11.95
1025
The book closes with a review of issues that need additional research. One of the key issues noted is the need to link women with their pasts, to help them appreciate their own history. Women need to appreciate not only where their weaknesses have been but where their strengths lie as well. Massachusetts General Institute of Health Profissions Massachussets General Hospital Boston, MA. U.S.A.
PHYLLIS
R.
SILVERMAN
R. BLOCK. 1981. 157
Women Over Forty is a well written review of recent sociological and psycl~ological literature about older women. It is valuable introductory text for any researcher interested in gerontology and in the lives of women. Block, Davidson and Grambs have collaborated in presenting a well organized and easy to read text that achieves its goal of raising the reader’s consciousness about the experience of older women. Most of the literature reviewed are reports on research, which the authors have classified under chapter headings such as: demographic profiles; images, menopause and sexuality; mental health and related issues; life situations; family relations and so forth. This classification makes the book easy to use as a reference. It is not clear why these authors have chosen to begin their review of older women with forty. There is an enormous spread in this population cohort, that includes women who were born before World War I and women who were born during World War II. Some of these women are grandmothers and great-grandmothers while others are becoming mothers for the first time as more women postpone their childbearing until they are older. It is difficult, therefore, to generalize about how these women approach their own aging. However, the authors correctly note that age may be less of a common denominator-for analyzing these experiences-than women’s attitudes towards themselves, and how they se-e themselves in the world. These attitudes may have more to do with life experience than with any specific age. They observe that to understand any one woman’s reaction, it is critical to consider her work experience, her education, her family and social network as well as her economic situation. The authors do try to identify common themes in all women’s experience. They suggest that over their life cycle most women will not occupy a single role, but will be constantly dealing with loss and change. For women every loss includes a role change. Role inconstancy pay be typical of the female experience and some researchers have observed that this may account for women’s resiliency in old age. Those women, who over a lifetime. have learned to handle these losses and role shifts successfully. seem to enjoy their old age more. Several studies reported on deal with women’s friendship networks, and point to the fact that women are beginning to re-evaluate their attitudes towards friendships with other women and to see these in more positive terms. In one study reported on, the concept of social sibling is proposed. Women are becoming more accepting of living in a single sex society, and of becoming more responsible for each other. One suggestion, to prevent the institutionalizing of the infirm elderly is to develop communal housing projects where people take care of each other. The authors point to the needs for greater institutional support that permits people to be more involved with each other rather than depending solely on experts and professionals for their care. They recognize the need for more research to understand the value of social supports and the involvement of the potential consumer in her own care.
The Menstrual Cycle: A Synthesis of Interdisciplimry Research, edited by ALICE J. DAN, EFFIE A. GRAHAMand CAROLP. BEECHER.Springer NY, 1980. 359 pp. S28.00 The Surgeon General’s Catalogue (1888) lists several thousand nineteenth-century studies of menstruation and associated psychological and physiological disorders. Roughly 300 articles on menstruation. broadly defined to include menarche. menopause, dysmenorrhea. amenorrhea. and menorrhagia. are cited in each of the last 10 yearly volumes of the Index Me&us. The card-catalogue of the Boston-Countway Medical Library has entries for 45 books on ‘menstruation’ published since 1960. Given these numbers, it at first seems surprising that the editors of The Menstrual Cycle: A Synthesis of Interdisciplinary Research claim that their work is a pioneering effort to break the taboo against menstrual cycle research (p. 1). The claim is not completely unwarranted, however. Though the book does not open up a hitherto unexplored area, it does rep resent an approach to the study of menstruation that lays aside old myths by revealing and encouraging new paths for research. Volume One of The Menstruul Cycle is a collection of articles the express aim being to redefine research programs in such a way that information about the menstrual cycle becomes more available and comprehensible to the women it affects. The book opens with a discussion of the ways in which science is determined by the theoretical biases of scientists, and with the claim that research on the menstrual cycle conducted to date has been limited by a ‘theoretical bias’ that defines events of the cycle as a pathology that must either be explained or explained-away (p. 12). It is argued that this bias has nr0dua.d two schools of research: a-‘traditional school’ that has directed its efforts toward discovery of the physiological bases of such sideeffects Of menstruation as moodiness, clumsiness, and cramps, and a more radical or ‘feminist school’ that has devoted its time to proving that woman’s nature is not biologically determined and to providing ‘social’ explanations for all the changes associated with the menstrual cycle. The contributors to The Menstrual Cycle want to dispel the notion that menstruation is pathology without dismissing biological studies as irrelevant or corrupt. They attempt to define the cycle as a complex b&social event, with physiological, psychological and sociological components and to study it in such a way that “the boundary between biological and social-psychological explanations becomes permeable*’ (p. 340). Most of the volume is devoted to studies that attempt to cross the boundary between the scientific and the socialscientific. These studies cover a variety of subjects, ranging from ‘Infraridian Rhythms in Oral Temperature before Human Menarche’ to ‘Premenstrual Changes in Mood, Personality, and Cognitive Function’ to ‘The Politics of Menopause’. There are great differences in the quality of articles and in the extent to which they rely on technical expertise. The studies are alike, however, in that they begin with the premise that no given change need occur during