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Most women have learned a great deal about how to set goals for our First Adulthood and how to roll with the punches when we hit a rough passage. But we're less prepared for our Second Adulthood as we approach life after retirement, where there are no fixed entrances or exits, and lots of sand into which it is easy to bury our heads.

Progress is being made, but a lot of women are realizing it is not what they envisioned.

In their 20s, women try to be somebody they're not and try to turn themselves into something different. Now I'm in my 30s; I'm very happy with who I am.

Women are trying to have it all but are trying to regain control over their time. That's why many women are busting out of the traditional workforce and starting their own businesses.

I see a lot of women of every age trying to be something else. I see them trying to imitate behaviors that they think belong to successful people.

Young women today, as in the fifties, find themselves entering the big world and having to make choices.

I see a lot of women around me who seem to stop developing as individuals after marriage and children. I don't know what kinds of pressure they're under, but I think it robs the world of 'the older version of Judy or Wendy,' or whomever. It robs the world of the next iteration of them, and I don't think that's right.

Women have been brought up to be passive, accepting, not come forward and play a major role in life. And with age, there's a tendency to revert to that - to pull back, recede. I don't think it's advisable or admirable.

It's hard to tell how far women's individuality has come in the past twenty years.

I keep returning to the central question facing over-50 women as we move into our Second Adulthood. What are our goals for this stage in our lives?