I just happened to start thinking about this question. I was reading some men’s magazine which ran an article on the reasons why men act in various ways at mid-life. But, I was wondering if women experience and exhibit similar traits at mid-life…and in the same proportions as men…especially now that women share the pressures and stresses of the workplace and bread-winning.
I WAG men are more apt to go through some form of mid-life metamorphasis. And, along these lines, I’d WAG more women may feel something equivalent whenever the time comes for the “empty nest syndrome” to strike?
I suppose at sometime in the past men who suffered a mid-life crisis had the financial means to dump their wives, take up with young blondes and buy sportscars, while the women had to make do with depression and alcoholism.
IMHO, these days a woman with financial independence gets out of a bad marriage as soon as it goes bad. So that manifestation of a “mid-life crisis” may happen when a woman is 32 instead of 42.
On the other hand, I know quite a few women who have gotten plastic surgery, dyed the gray out of their hair, etc., so I’d guess there’s some sort of resistance to the inevitability of aging.
I suppose there are so many pathways which lead to a mid-life crisis, it is hard to define by gender, isn’t it? I heard it best described as a second adolescence…the growing pains from the first stage of adulthood into the second half of adulthood. …And a lot of us rebel to fight against the aging process while attempting to juggle the hum-drum life of work, work, work…and the demands of the day-in, day-out home life.
Wow. As if the teen years weren’t hard enough… - Jinx
Despite the increasing number of women in the workplace, men are still socially and culturally expected to perform and provide. Consequently, men tend to have bigger dreams (no cite, just a general observation). But one day they find themselves in the forties and they’re not the multimillionare or famous author they had hoped to be. Instead, they have a family that barely respects him, a job as a cubicle monkey and no way to escape. The days become increasingly similar and mundane. So they go out and do something wacky in hopes to make his days distinguishable and exciting.
Maybe I’ve been watching American Beauty too much.
Wait. I forgot my conclusion.
The reason there aren’t any “mid 20s crisis” or what have you is because usually at that point there’s hope. A 24 year old can always say “hey my life sucks, but it’s gonna get better.” But at middle age, a man might like feel there’s no hope for a change for the better. The only thing really left is growing old and senile (or so it may feel). So why not go out and enjoy what’s left of my life before I die? Why should I be stuck in this life I barely enjoy so I can be sent to a Home one day and suffer the indignity of adult diapers?
Thus, a mid-life crisis. I think it’s perfectly understandable.