open room, through which the men and women of the Baby Boom are
currently passing.
Some thirty years were added to life expectancy at birth in the twen-
tieth century, primarily by scientific research and cultural changes. I
believe that this change may prove to be as significant in human evolu-
tion as the extension of dependent childhood. The human pattern of
survival is based not on fixed, inborn patterns of behavior, as in most
of animal species, but on learning that can take very different forms
and continues throughout the life course. It is this plasticity that has
allowed humans to develop ways of living virtually everywhere on
the planet and that offers hope that we will find the capacity for
change that will be needed during the ecological and climatic disrup-
tion that lies ahead. Everywhere childhood seems to be getting longer,
and lifelong learning is becoming a watchword, as it needs to be.
Dependency is seen by many as a negative concept, but it is in the long
period of childhood dependency that humans learn both love and
trust and perhaps the courage to go forward into continuing change.
I believe that interdependence and the empathy that supports co-
operation are precisely what we need in our uncertain future.
What is most striking about the late adulthood choices made by
these Boomer women is their movement into areas of change. They
have found their careers in spaces created by twentieth-century femi-
nism, and many of these are spaces that did not exist previously, new
professions. Two striking examples are coaching (life or career coach-
ing, not athletic coaching) and museum curating (such as caring for
and making choices in museum collections). Other examples have to
do with guiding technological change in the workplace and outplace-
ment. The theme of “giving back” or making a contribution is also an
important one.
Women seem to be becoming more thoughtful than men about what
to do in later adulthood, for several reasons. Ageism is still more
prevalent directed at women, so finding a role that is satisfying and
effective is more challenging. More important, however, is the fact that
women coming up on retirement today have already experienced a
reassessment of their roles during the feminist movement: they have
looked at what they might have taken for granted and recognized
some of their assumptions as “internalized oppression,” negative ster-
eotypes to be put aside as they have claimed new freedom and new
creativity. Furthermore, in many cases, having managed careers of
multiple commitments, they are less narrowly focused than many
men, more aware of the possible implications of decisions made for
the wider human and ecological community. Because there is still a
tendency for men to marry younger women, women maintain
x Foreword
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