ADOLESCENCE AND EARLY ADULTHOOD
Young Persephone’s high school experience is usually a continu-
ation of her early life. If she has grown up in a “Mother knows best”
relationship, her mother shops with her, chooses her clothes, and
influences her choice of friends, interests, and now dates. Living
vicariously through her daughter’s experience, she may devour de-
tails of her daughter’s dates and activities, and may expect her
daughter to confide in her and share secrets.
However, adolescents need to keep some secrets and have some
privacy. At this stage of growth, an overly intrusive parent handicaps
the development of a separate identity. By sharing everything, an
adolescent daughter allows her mother to color what should be her
own experience. Her mother’s anxieties, opinions, and values influ-
ence her perceptions.
Typically, a middle- or upper-class Persephone woman attends
college because that is where young women of her social class and
background are expected to be—the contemporary equivalent of the
meadows where Persephone and her friends played. Education is
usually a pastime for such a girl, not an occupational prerequisite.
She struggles to get assignments done and papers written, because
she is easily diverted and/or lacks confidence. Characteristically,
she tries several possible academic majors. If she manages to settle
on one, she does so often by default or by following the path of least
resistance rather than by active choice.
WORK
The Persephone woman may stay a “professional student,” or she
may go to work. Whether after high school or after college, she tends
to have a series of jobs, rather than a profession or a career, and
gravitates to where her friends or family are. She moves from job to
job in the hope that one will really interest her. Or she may be fired
when she doesn’t meet deadlines or takes too much time off.
Persephone women do best at jobs that do not require initiative,
persistence, or supervisory skills. She does very well when she has
a boss she wants to please, who gives her specific assignments that
must be done right away. On long assign-
Goddesses in Everywoman