In the present study, the need to develop constructs and models for the adult development of women was addressed. Developmental changes and issues were described and a contextual explanation of the relevant aspects of female identification was offered. They hypotheses tested were: (1) It was expected that the developmental stages through which women pass between the ages of 32 and 45 are the same as they are for men between the ages of 35 and 45. (2) It was expected that developmental tasks are different in both nature and extent of achievement for women between the ages of 32 and 45 and men between the ages of 35 and 45. Subjects were 30 caucasian women between the ages of 32 and 44. The sample was stratified on the basis of residence in one urban or one rural community. Street directories of the two communities were employed in obtaining random samples (15 from each). Women agreeing to participate completed a lifeline construction and a biographical interview which lasted from 2 1/2 to 4 hours. Interview questions were planned to help women describe themselves as changing over time, and were organized according to such topic headings as health, education, and occupation. Results to specific questions, as they formed response patterns, were reported under these topic headings. Also, biographies were constructed, so that the evolution of choice and change could be understood for each participant. This study was conducted simultaneously with two others which employed the same research design with a sample group of women 18 to 34 (Alexander, 1980), and 45 to 60 (Goodman, 1980). Each of the three researchers has, in the process of doing reliability testing for the other two, analyzed data on women 18 to 60 years of age. It was found that women experience an Age Thirty Transition and a Mid-Life Transition, as well as some specific, age-related developmental changes in the decade of their 30's. For example, participants developed a greater sense of responsibility to themselves, became more autonomous and introspective, developed a need to do "something significant" and initiated a life review between the ages of 28 and 42. Because of the nature of women's identities, their choices and sense of the future were relational and diffuse. The time limited nature of the role demands of motherhood, and the time pressure to bear children by a certain age if at all were important determinants of the pattern of early adult development for these women. The nature, rhythm and specific tasks of development may be different for these women and the men of Levinson's (1978b) study, although comparisons between the two groups need to be qualified because the male and female sample groups were not of the same cohort or study. The broad outlines of developmental periods seemed to be the same for the two sample groups, as did such processes of adult development as individuation and introspection.