Chapters of our lives: life narratives of low-income midlife and older women

The study used a narrative approach to explore the ways in which midlife and older women perceive their later years. Life review interviews were held with 60 low-income women (20 aged 40-45, 20 aged 50-55 and 20 aged 60-65) living in the western suburbs of Sydney. At the end of the interview, participants were asked to consider their life story as a book (including, if they wished, their future life as they now saw it), to decide how they would divide this book into chapters, and to select a title for each chapter. The average number of book chapters was 8.1 for the total sample and 8.5 for the oldest group, 45.3 % of which covered events after age 40. Thematic analysis of the chapters covering the last 20 years of the 60-65 age group identified four story types. These were stories of loss (10%), stories of busy contentment (20%), ‘breaking out of role ’ stories (35%) and ‘clear sailing ’ stories (35%). [The ‘clear sailing ’ stories of the 60-65 age group usually referred back to former chapters describing ‘stormy seas’.] Thus 70 % of the 60-65 age group described, later life as an notable improvement on the past ('contentment time&apos