Pioneers in Our Own Lives: Grounded Theory of Lesbians' Midlife Development

ABSTRACT

Historically, human development theorists made no mention of experiences unique to lesbians. To explore implications of differences associated with lesbian midlife development, this qualitative study compared the midlife experiences of 12 lesbians between the ages of 41 and 54 to descriptions of midlife development resulting from two prior studies using similar methods with groups whose members were nearly all heterosexual women, i.e., data collected in a series of focus group meetings and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. While lesbians in this study faced many of the same occurrences described by other middle-aged women, they experienced those events in different ways. The lesbians experienced less emotional turmoil during midlife than did their heterosexual counterparts. They also expressed unique concerns about old age.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychological development
• midlife women
• life experiences
• lesbian psychological development
• coming out