have learned and struggled with. The language we use reflects our
self-awareness, how we see ourselves, and how we respond to oppor-
tunity, challenges, and change.
WHO ARE THE WOMEN WE STUDIED?
To identify participants for this study, we began by reaching out to
our respective networks of professional women. Our initial contacts
soon led to an expanding group of referrals that included women from
a range of backgrounds and professions. We chose to look exclusively
at career women—that is, individuals committed to the long-term pro-
fessional engagement and growth demanded by their field(s). Our first
group of interview subjects came from western New York State. The
second group was drawn from the metropolitan areas of New York,
New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
The twenty-five women profiled in this book represented a range of
ethnic and geographic backgrounds, areas of professional focus, and
current employment status as well as diversity in race, sexual orienta-
tion, and marital status. We are committed to presenting their individ-
ual responses as accurately as possible while respecting their privacy
and adhering to our guarantee of confidentiality. To ensure this, we
refer to each woman by a pseudonym, and we have aggregated all
demographic information. The views of women in the focus groups
are brought together collectively to represent the consensus that
emerged within the groups.
DRAWING ON COACHING STRATEGIES, LISTENING TO STORIES
As much as possible, we wanted to make women’s stories personal,
to capture their voices and use their own language. We also wanted to
understand those stories within the larger context of the early Baby
Boomer generation. What were the women’s experiences as children,
young adults, and professionals? What distinguished the women from
one another? What did they have in common?
To develop a personalized, recursive approach, we drew on the
coaching process Judy had used professionally and then incorporated
and modified several components into the basis of our work. In place
of an oral life history, we created a six-page survey. The survey posed
in-depth questions about women’s early influences from childhood
to adulthood, including their relationships with parents, family,
friends, and mentors, followed by questions about their educational
Introduction xxi
