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IT’S GOOD TO BE A WOMAN is the ideal book-club book, dealing as it does with women’s lives. Here are some questions to start off the discussion.

These women say that their lives have been significantly affected by their time and place in history, born in the war years (World War II) and coming of age in the early sixties with Kennedy as president.  When did you “come of age,” and how has your life been affected by your time and place in history?

Generations are usually defined in retrospect--the fifties generation of suburban housewives, the noisy rebels of the sixties generation—and the quiet in-between generation of women in this book. Do you think of yourself as part of a specific generation? How would you define “your” generation?

Anthropologist Sherry Ortner remembers her life as a series of lucky breaks, and goes on to say that it could all so easily have gone in a different way. What does she mean by luck? What role has luck played in your life?

Several of these women have had careers in the “male” professions—journalism, law and medicine—and played a part in breaking down barriers for women entering those professions. The doors are open now, even in business and politics. But there are still glass ceilings, and in many ways the professions are still quite hostile to women. The media are full of talk about the “mommy wars” and the difficult life/work balance for women. What is the problem, in your view? What can we do about it, as individuals and as a society?

Each of the women in the book had to find her own path through life, and they ask themselves, again and again, two basic questions: “Who am I?” and “What do I want to do with my life?”  How do each of these women answer these questions of identity and purpose at different points in their lives? How do you answer these questions for yourself?

These women are now in their sixties, intent on “making the most of the rest of their lives.” One says that she hasn’t bloomed yet; while another has gone from a career as an economist at the World Bank to writing musicals, in collaboration with her new husband. 
How do you think of this “third age” of life? What would it mean, for you, to bloom?

Contact the Author

• If you have book club questions and/or comments that you would like to contribute. I will add them here (as time and space permit).
• If you want to invite me to join your book club discussion. Generally, I will be there in person if you are meeting  in the New York City area, or by phone if you are somewhere else.