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Alice S. Rossi (ed.), Gender and the Life Course, Aldine Publishing Company, New York, 1985, 368 pp., $34.95, ISBN 0 202 30311 X, ISBN 0 202 30312 8 (pbk).

Informal networks are also seen to be of great importance to women, allowing them a degree of continuity in their lives which compensates for the lifestyle changes experienced with age. In the main, there is support for Brown's observations concerning non-industrialised societies, although such changes become less overt as the level of societal complexity increases. The meaning of middle age for women in industrial societies is not simply defined by cultural traditions, rules and values. The chapters concerning the lives of older women in Israel and Canada show how the meaning can be defined by' experts'; varies amongst sub-cultures within a society and also is individualised, finding definition within personal experience. This book is of particular interest to all those with an interest in women and ageing for it challenges negative stereotypes and helps provide a broader framework from which to view women within our own culture. In the final chapter the psychologist, David Gutmann, outlines a developmental approach to understanding the lives of older women. He suggests that women as they age possess an energy and autonomy that many find difficult to express. Without expression such energies are depleted rather than developed. By looking at 'middle age' from a cross-cultural perspective perhaps there are new lessons to learn about the hidden power of older women within our own culture.