choices, expectations, and career path. The survey also asked about
their decision to stay in or leave the workplace and their ideas about
their next steps. In addition to providing valuable demographic data,
the survey helped us identify important similarities and differences
among the women, both as they were growing up and in their profes-
sional lives.
After women completed the survey, we used coaching strategies in
lieu of assessment tools to communicate with them directly and to
develop an awareness of their thinking and behavioral
styles.1
Based
on each woman’s survey responses, we then developed questions for
an individualized sixty-minute interview; during the interview, we
asked each participant to elaborate on and clarify her responses.
Whether conducted by phone or in person, the interviews gave us
an opportunity to interact directly with the women. We listened to
their stories, told in their own voices. We learned about the road-
blocks and opportunities they experienced; the hard work and years
they invested; and the credentials and recognition they earned.
At the time of the interviews, the women were at various points
along a continuum that included a search for work, part-time and
full-time employment, and retirement. To learn more about each
person’s transition to life beyond her full-time career, we asked
questions that focused on timing and other factors affecting the
decision to retire.
Although the questions we posed in surveys and personal inter-
views told us a great deal about the lives and decisions of individual
women, we realized how important it was for them to talk to others
like themselves. We created that opportunity in the next phase of our
research when we brought the women together. After interviewing a
dozen women in each of the two geographic areas, we invited each
set of participants to be part of a focus group. Their responses were
very enthusiastic.
We convened the groups for morning-long sessions to gather and
assimilate more in-depth group
information.2
The focus group discus-
sions gave women the opportunity to engage in a process of self-
reflection that continued long after the meetings had concluded. For
many women, the focus group conversation and shared experiences
sparked the beginning of a new kind of self-awareness.
In addition to providing us with valuable information about the
women’s shared experiences and concerns, the focus groups played a
critical role in developing the element of reciprocity that we believe
is vital to our work. We wanted the participants to walk away feeling
uplifted, with a better understanding of the transition process they
were going through. We wanted them to know they had been heard,
xxii Introduction
