The anti-feminist reconstruction of the midlife crisis: Popular psychology, journalism and social science in 1970s America
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Schmidt, SA
Abstract
The “midlife crisis” was first successfully promoted in the United States with journalist Gail Sheehy’s Passages (1976) as a feminist idea, which described middle life as the point when men and women abandon traditional gender roles. Psychological experts responded with a male-centered definition of middle age, which banned women from reimagining their lives. Presented and received as more scientific, this became the dominant meaning of “midlife crisis.” This paper reverses histories of “popularization” by tracing how an idea moved from popular culture into academia. It examines the gender politics of scientific demarcation and shows that the midlife crisis has historical roots in debates about gender roles.
Description
Keywords
4405 Gender Studies, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society
Journal Title
Gender and History
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0953-5233
1468-0424
1468-0424
Volume Title
30
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher DOI
Sponsorship
AHRC (1492654)
Arts and Humanities Research Council,
Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes