Women Rowing North: Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing As We Age

by Mary Pipher

Overview

New York Times Bestseller * USA Today Bestseller * Los Angeles Times Bestseller * Publishers Weekly Bestseller

The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of Reviving Ophelia—a guide to wisdom, authenticity, and bliss for women as they age.

Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people they have always wanted to be.

In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, caregiver, clinical psychologist, and cultural anthropologist, she explores ways women can cultivate resilient responses to the challenges they face. “If we can keep our wits about us, think clearly, and manage our emotions skillfully,” Pipher writes, “we will experience a joyous time of our lives. If we have planned carefully and packed properly, if we have good maps and guides, the journey can be transcendent.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632869609
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	01/15/2019
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	384,529
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mary Pipher is a psychologist specializing in women, trauma, and the effects of our culture on mental health, which has earned her the title of “cultural therapist” for her generation. She is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Reviving Ophelia, The Shelter of Each Other, Another Country and most recently, Women Rowing North. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I Challenges of the Journey

1 A New Stretch of the River 14

2 The Lay of the Land 26

3 The Worn Body 37

4 Intensity and Poignancy 53

5 Caregiving 60

6 Swept Away 69

7 Loneliness and Solitude 83

II Travel Skills

8 Understanding Ourselves 98

9 Making Intentional Choices 109

10 Building a Good Day 122

11 Creating Community 135

12 Crafting Resplendent Narratives 147

13 Anchoring in Gratitude 160

III The People on the Boat

14 Travel Companions 174

15 Co-Captains 184

16 The Lifeboat of Family 195

17 Grandchildren 206

IV The Northern Lights

18 Moon River: Authenticity and Self-Acceptance 220

19 The Long View 231

20 Everything Is Illuminated 241

Acknowledgments 252

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/16/2018
Pipher (The Green Boat), best known for challenging the cultural perspective on teenage girls in 1994’s bestselling Reviving Ophelia, brings her professional skill as a cultural anthropologist and her personal experience as a woman transitioning from middle age to old age to a work chock-full of wisdom and consoling messages. Attentive to varying experiences of class, race, gender, health, and marital status, even as she considers the deep “challenges of aging, including ageism and lookism, caregiving, loss, and loneliness,” Pipher offers practical, specific advice. This includes walking readers through “deep breathing and centering exercises,” grandparenting “intentionally,” and dealing with end-of-life care. She pays particular attention to the importance of finding community, warning against the trap of becoming isolated, and rattling off a multitude of suggestions—readers could join a book group, “learn to kayak” (per the title), or “volunteer to teach English to refugees.” While a must-read for its target audience of women moving into old age, Pipher’s engaging book is an ought-to-read for their daughters and sons as well, as it sets forth the universal message that “happiness is a choice and a set of skills.” Agent: Susan Lee Cohen, Riverside Literary Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"An important book…Pipher shines high-beam headlights on the world of teenage girls." - Los Angeles Times on REVIVING OPHELIA

"Serious and thoughtful material presented with the fluidity of good fiction." - Kirkus Reviews on REVIVING OPHELIA

"A must-read for all of us who care about young women in our lives…Reviving Ophelia arms us with information we can use in helping our daughters grow to adulthood with their strength intact." - Lincoln Star Journal on REVIVING OPHELIA

"Eye-opening…heart-wrenching and uplifting." - San Francisco Chronicle on THE SHELTER OF EACH OTHER

"A canny mix of optimism and practicality." - Newsweek on THE SHELTER OF EACH OTHER

"A generous book conceived and executed by a compassionate…mind." - Publisher's Weekly (starred review) on SEEKING PEACE

"An absorbing chronicle of discovery." - Booklist on SEEKING PEACE

"A field guide to old age, combining personal stories with social theory." - The Boston Globe on ANOTHER COUNTRY

From the Publisher

2018-10-02

A distinguished clinical psychologist and bestselling author examines the personal and social issues that aging women face in modern American society.

For women in transition between late-middle and old age, life becomes more difficult. Loss, especially through death, becomes the new norm as women see their bodies and minds devalued by society. To help women navigate these late-life "turns in the river," Pipher (The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in our Capsized Culture, 2013, etc.) offers practical wisdom based on interviews, research, and her own experiences as a therapist and aging woman. In the first section, the author highlights "the challenges of the journey," which she illustrates with real-life anecdotes. As Pipher writes, TV, "movies, fashion, and advertising rarely reflect the needs and circumstances of older women." Women who formerly felt attractive experience a "crisis of confidence," and many women find their bodies becoming more limited due to illness or age. In the second section, Pipher focuses on "travel skills" women need to manage this part of the journey. The ability to accommodate change is key, as is creating a community of individuals with whom to communicate and deflect the isolation that too often comes with age. Reframing "situations in positive ways, being thankful, and giving to others" are also skills that can help ease the journey forward. In the third section, the author emphasizes the importance of relationships. Female friendships, in particular, can bring comfort and pleasure, and for those whose marriages have survived into old age, partners and families can become safe havens. But the most important relationship an aging woman has will always be with herself. As Pipher notes in the final section, one of the greatest gifts of old age is the loss of "false selves" carried earlier in the journey and the emergence of a whole and authentic self. Eloquently compassionate and sure to appeal to late-life women, Pipher's book draws from a deep well of insight that is both refreshing and spiritually aware.

Thoughtful, wise, and humane.

Kirkus Reviews