Retired with Husband: Superwoman's New Challenge

Mary Louise Floyd
VanderWyk & Burnham (2006)
ISBN 1889242268
Reviewed by Mary Simmons for Reader Views (11/06)

Geared towards other superwomen, “Retired with Husband” is author Mary Louise Floyd’s challenge for baby boomers to head into their second adulthood – life after retirement – with as much passion, skill and enthusiasm as they tackled their first adulthood.

According to Floyd, Superwoman refers to, “that woman who proved she could be wife, mother, housekeeper, gardener, cook, family social chairperson, volunteer and wage earner.”  She writes from her own experience. A self-professed Superwoman, Floyd is also a retired educator who is living with her retired attorney husband.  Together, they are facing the transition into life after work, which inspired the subject of this book.

On the road to a fulfilling retirement couples are faced with a series of challenges along the way. One of the first goals Floyd sets for superwomen is to help their husbands find their new identity since they can no longer define themselves by what they do for a living. She says this transition is easier for most women because they are already living multi-dimensional lives.  With this new stage will also come new friendships, as well as the need to work on existing relationships.  Superwoman will have to help her husband communicate empathetically in order to nurture relations with parents, children and friends.

Floyd says retirement does not have to be a swift descent into old age and dotage. In fact, she insists it will mean just the opposite for her generation. She advises retirees to do everything they can to find their gifts and live their lives to the fullest, through healthy living, risk-taking, volunteering, part-time work, consultation positions – anything that will allows them to, “be all that you can be – and haven’t been yet.”

Throughout the book Floyd keeps her sense of humor, using wit and keen insight to highlight her observations and strategies.  While this book focuses on how marriages can survive and thrive during the transition into retirement, Floyd also includes many interesting historical and societal facts that give context to why the baby boom generation is the way it is. Although her generalizations sometimes seem a little too sweeping and stereotypical, this context is helpful to the reader in that it shows where the commonalities come from.

“Retired with Husband” is not just for superwomen of retirement age. As a single, twenty-something Gen-X female, I found the book was an interesting guide to the mindset of my parents’ generation and a forecast to my own future. It addresses how all generations can learn to understand and empathize with each other through open communication and shared interests. I recommend it for all the superwomen out there who are trying to make the most of their lives.

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