But before we segment the boomer demographic into camps, let’s take a moment to get a sneak peak at where the cultural mavens, the same group who led women’s liberation, pioneered life balance and simplicity and for whom fast food was invented, are heading. The Orsborn/Smull qualitative study of 100 leading-edge boomer women found that as they approach and transit through midlife, women become increasingly passionate about seeking meaning in their lives. They are eager to assess how they’re doing in their own lives as well as to learn from other smart, seasoned women who have found meaning for themselves, regardless of their life circumstances. This is especially true for those women transiting into their 50’s, 60’s and beyond who will increasingly be dealing with change, challenge and uncertainty over the coming years. These women come from a broad spectrum of religious, spiritual and philosophical orientations. They share one thing in common: the yearning to make sense of their lives.

The midlife woman’s search for meaning has been substantiated by the broadest scale studies ever by AARP, Focalyst and others that point to the growing segment of the aging population for whom issues of spirituality and meaning are becoming increasingly important.

The woman of this generation at midlife and beyond know not only how far she’s come but also what it is she wants more of in her life. The communal wish list can be captured in one word:

Meaning: The profound yearning to know that you are alive for a purpose, that your life makes sense and bears significance to others. This does not always—but may—have to do with altering your circumstances. In fact, the essence of meaning is to be able to find meaning not only despite but through both the day to day and extraordinary circumstances with which you are faced.

Gwen Mazer, owner of Total Image Management, a consulting firm in San Francisco that advises companies and individual clients about the power of personal image as a component of communication, exemplifies the woman in search of meaning. Despite her involvement with what has traditionally been seen as the materialistic/superficial world of fashion, she, herself, is on a quest for personal as well as professional meaning. Recently, she authored a book titled “Wise Talk Wild Women” offering both verbal and photographic portraits of boomer and beyond women. The though-line of virtually all the profiles is the yearning for, quest for, and progress in attaining a meaningful life.

Susan Sarandon, who endorses the book jacket, writes: “Women are leading the world toward change by embracing and recognizing the intuitive wisdom and perspective that only comes with having lived, having lost, having loved. It’s wonderful to find a documentation of the power of aging in a time when most media and social structures render women over sixty invisible.”
Amongst those profiled are two leaders of the spiritual trend Sarandon describes: Jean Houston and Barbara Marx Hubbard.

A colleague of Joseph Campbell’s, author/teacher Houston recalls Margaret Mead advising her to “go out into the world and harvest the human potential.”

Says Houston: “I believe we are in the process of the most important change in our history of the past five thousand years—and that is the rise of women to full partnership with men in the whole domain of human affairs… Perhaps it is the feminine face of God rising.”

Barbara Marx Hubbard, also author and teacher, in the lineage of the likes of Abraham Maslow, Esalen Institute and Teilhard de Chardin, writes: “My whole life has been about sharing this, so that others would be able to know that there is a context, a purpose, and a meaning for their lives…I’ve come to believe that women have a great sensitivity to this new time that is emerging…It has been my experience that most people waking up (to a deep vocational call or life purpose) are women over fifty.”

It was our qualitative study’s discovery that the women most likely to thrive at
midlife and beyond have developed the capacity to use whatever life brings their way as an opportunity for personal growth. I am amongst those who carefully observe the leading-edges of this generation who believe that this notion, that we are a generation who see the present and future as an opportunity for the pursuit of meaning, may well, in fact, be women’s next revolution.

In my next blog: putting this leading-edge female spiritual profile into the larger context of the distinct religio-spiritual archetypes of the boomer population and how they relate to the stages of adult development.

Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.