Midlife Crisis Become An Issue for More Women Looking Back (Part 4)

By Sue Shellenbarger

The "midlife crisis" has long been thought of as something that afflicts men and often involves expensive toys and second wives. But the Wall Street Journal's Work & Family columnist, Sue Shellenbarger, says that as gender roles change, women are increasingly experiencing their own version of these upheavals. What follows is adapted from her new book, "The Breaking Point: How Female Midlife Crisis Is Transforming Today's Women."

Looking Back

To capture a few complete stories of midlife crisis, viewed through the clarifying lens of hindsight, I sought out several older women in their late 50s, 60s and 70s who had experienced midlife crises a decade or more ago. I asked them how their midlife decisions had shaped their experience in old age, and what they would do differently if they could.

Without exception, the women who made big midlife changes said that if given the chance to do it all again, they would embrace new undertakings even more wholeheartedly. Every one of the women who entered fully into midlife crisis, taking risks and exploring new opportunities, was enthusiastically glad that she had. Their only regrets were in failing to start sooner or to take more chances.

At the least, each of these women reaped memories that sustained her for years. Carol Marians an Oregon artist and scientist, left her career as a math professor at age 43 to return to college as a Ph.D. candidate, then pursued a lifelong dream of re-creating the copper-red glazes of China's Sung dynasty. Her work with ceramics led her to make pioneering discoveries on the structure of certain mineral forms. That work is a bulwark of her sense of personal identity.

Now 64, Dr. Marians still revels in those memories. "Whenever I feel sad, I look back at that," she says.

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