JUGGLING

A sobering account of women's struggle for opportunity and equality in the work force, seen through the eyes of one of the leaders in the fight. Gould's professional life was dedicated to ``helping women broaden their options'' (she was director of career services at Barnard College and later a founder and director of its Women's Center, an early force in women's studies). Her narrative relates in concrete detail and in more philosophical consideration Gould's brave and dedicated personal and professional fight for expanded horizons for herself and other women. Juggling begins with an ``epiphany,'' the moment when, as a 35-year-old mother of two and supportive doctor's wife, Gould realized that the world of open possibilities had vanished for her: ``I had reached the high point in my life when I was nineteen and it had been downhill ever since.'' Subsequent chapters on Gould's childhood, adolescence, and college years offer insight into how her family and complex Jewish background helped to shape her character. And the quirky and interesting family members and their history offer an exciting narrative of immigration, fortunes won and lost, and both close and fractured family ties. The remainder of Gould's memoir primarily reviews her professional career, beginning with her daring reentry into the work world during the 1950s. As Gould shares the many obstacles she faced in returning to work as a career counselor for ``reentries'' like herself, as well as the resistance she met among certain colleagues at the university level, her readers will likely accept the pioneer status she claims for herself. Gould is characteristically honest about the limitations of her experience: She worked primarily with white, middle-class women—women like herself. Despite this admitted shortcoming and the occasional excess of personal information, Juggling provides an honest and insightful consideration of one courageous woman's experience.