Dealing With Generativity, Money, Loss, and Health in Retirement: A Review of Retiring But Not Shy: Feminist Psychologists Create Their Post-Careers

Abstract

ELLEN COLE AND MARY GERGEN HAVE EDITED a collection of reflections of some very well-known feminist psychologists discussing their decision-making regarding their own retirement. As the co-editors discuss in the Forward, many of the “founding mothers” (p. 11) of Division 35 of the American Psychological Association are now in their 70s or older and are now facing retirement. The many accomplishments of this group of women are briefly discussed. As the co-editors explain, it was hoped that a “broad audience of readers could benefit from their individual and collective experience” (p. 13). Diversity among the women leadership of Division 35 was considered in inviting chapters, and women who were thinking about retirement wrote about their experiences, along with those who were beginning their retirement years, and those who had already been retired for some time. All of the chapter authors were distinguished scholars and many were former Presidents of Division 35. Michelle Fine discussed the importance of this cohort of women in her Introduction chapter. One of the chapters was written by Nancy Schlossberg, who was classified as being early in her retirement. She has published research on retirement experiences of both men and women (Schlossberg, 2009). She identified six common patterns among both the women and men in her sample. These included: