Review of Reflections from Pioneering Women in Psychology

Abstract

Optimal aging, a complex and dynamic process that is sometimes hard to discern, is uniquely manifest in this compilation of personal reflections of the career paths of a group of older women. A chronicle of the lives of 26 influential and transformative women in psychology who are either in or nearing retirement, this book is both inspiring and instructive. It is also a study of linked lives in a particular context: these women, like many others of their era, confronted social norms and outright hostility that constituted barriers to their success. “This is the stupidest thing I have ever read,” said a reviewer to one during her early career. “Only talk once in seminar” was the advice for joining the department to another. “Women aren’t tough enough” was the unexamined assumption in one department. Yet, all of them carried on and made (and continue to make) major contributions to the study of wide-ranging subfields within psychology. The title of one essay was apt for all of the chapters, “Overcoming obstacles: Persisting, pivoting, and paying attention to unforeseen opportunities” (Chapter 17, by Rachel Pruchno).

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