Midlife Crisis: The Feminist Origins of a Chauvinist Clich�

This book recounts the surprising origin story of the midlife crisis." Before becoming a gendered cliché, the midlife crisis gained traction as a feminist concept with the publication of journalist Gail Sheehy's best-selling Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life. Coined by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in the 1950s, the term was largely neglected until Sheehy re-invented it as a feminist idea that challenged the double standard of middle age. Widely popular, 'midlife crisis' was subsequently appropriated and redefined as a masculinist concept by psychological and psychiatric experts. Susanne Schmidt's telling reveals the midlife crisis' remarkable role in modern American life: first to valorize the emergence of female breadwinners and dual-income families, then to reassert gender order in times of social change. A must-read"--

• | Author: Susanne Schmidt
• | Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• | Publication Date: March 12, 2020
• | Number of Pages: 280 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 022663714X
• | ISBN-13: 9780226637143