Lunneborg, Patricia W(ells) 1933-

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LUNNEBORG, Patricia W(ells) 1933-

PERSONAL: Born July 24, 1933; married Clifford E. Lunneborg. Education: Cornell University, B.S., 1955; University of Washington, M.S., 1959; University of Texas-Austin, Ph.D., 1962.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—11930 Riviera Place, N.E., Seattle, WA 98125-5963. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Professor and writer. University of Washington, Seattle, associate professor of psychology, 1967-87.

MEMBER: American Psychological Association (fellow), Sisters in Crime, International Association of Women Police, Police Writers Association, National Center for Women and Policing, Sigma Xi.

AWARDS, HONORS: Agatha Award nomination (with Bobbie Wells Ryan), 2002, for Food, Drink and the Female Sleuth.

WRITINGS:

The Vocational Interest Inventory, VII: Manual, Western Psychological Services (Los Angeles, CA), 1981.

To Work: A Guide for Women College Graduates, Prentice-Hall/Spectrum (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1982.

Women Police Officers: Current Career Profile, Charles C. Thomas (Springfield, IL), 1989.

Women Changing Work, Bergin and Garvey (New York, NY), 1990.

Abortion: A Positive Decision, Bergin and Garvey (New York, NY), 1992.

OU Women: Undoing Educational Obstacles, Lutter-worth Press (Cambridge, England), 1994.

OU Men: Work through Lifelong Learning, Lutter-worth Press (Cambridge, England), 1997.

The Chosen Lives of Childfree Men, Bergin and Garvey (Westport, CT), 1999.

(Editor, with sister Bobbie Wells Ryan) Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth, Authors Choice Press (iuniverse.com), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Patricia W. Lunneborg was a professor of psychology and adjunct professor of women's studies at the University of Washington from 1967 to 1987. During that time, she advised over 1,000 undergraduates and taught career development, community psychology, and psychology fieldwork. Now retired, she is the author of nonfiction books on psychological topics, as well as a lighthearted anthology of mystery writing.

In Women Changing Work Lunneborg examines women's contribution to traditionally male-dominated industry through interviews with 204 women engineers, doctors, legislators, tradespeople, attorneys, firefighters, stockbrokers, architects, and others. These women discuss their relations with men on the job, their reasons for choosing male-dominated fields, and their career goals. In Labor Studies Journal, Mary G. H. Lazarsky wrote, "Lunneborg presents a picture of successful women as well-organized, balanced and supportive individuals." In Industrial and Labor Relations Review Jean Baderschneider commented, "To younger women, the message is to recognize the full range of their skills and celebrate their differences from men. And to men, Lunneborg's discussion drives home the point that diversity may enhance, not compromise."

Abortion: A Positive Decision presents Lunneborg's theory that, for some women, having an abortion offers an opportunity for personal growth and empowerment. She interviewed forty-seven providers and fifty-seven women who had had abortions, and asked them about the positive aspect of their experiences.

The Chosen Lives of Childfree Men examines voluntary childlessness and its impact on men who chose not to have children. Lunneborg interviewed thirty men who did not have children; according to Susan Greenhalgh in Population and Development Review, most of them reported that not having children was "no big deal," and most of them had never even considered the issue of having children or not having them. Unlike women who chose not to have children, these men did not experience pressure from family or society to procreate. For about half of the men, their decision not to have children was tied to the fact that their own fathers had been abusive or uninvolved, and they did not want to pass this situation on to their own children. Greenhalgh wrote that this book "provides an eye-opening look at an underexamined subject and suggests a wealth of hypotheses to guide future research."

In 2002 Wells and her sister, Bobbie Wells Ryan, teamed up to edit Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth, a compendium of the best food scenes in mainstream detective fiction written by women and featuring female sleuths. Including over 140 contributors and 250 excerpts, the book includes among its twentythree chapters "Undercover Grub and Stakeout Takeout," "Junk Food on the Run," "Bribing with Food," and "The Last Bite." The collection was nominated in 2002 for an Agatha Award for best nonfiction.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1992, Mary Ellen Sullivan, review of Abortion: A Positive Decision, p. 1072; February 1, 1983, Sue-Ellen Beauregard, review of To Work, p. 705; August, 1999, David Rouse, review of OU Men, p. 2002.

Choice, April, 1991, review of Women Changing Work, p. 1389.

Contemporary Sociology, January, 2001, Cardell K. Jacobson, review of The Chosen Lives of Childfree Men, p. 31.

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, September, 1990, Kathleen McChesney, review of Women Police Officers, p. 7.

Gender Issues, winter, 2001, John Knodel, review of The Chosen Lives of Childfree Men, p. 96.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review, July, 1992, Jean Baderschneider, review of Women Changing Work, p. 828.

Labor Studies Journal, fall, 1992, Mary G. H. Lazarsky, review of Women Changing Work, p. 82.

New Directions for Women, March, 1992, Susan E. Davis, review of Women Changing Work, p. 23; July, 1992, Tracy Scott, review of Abortion: A Positive Decision, p. 31

Population and Development Review, December, 1999, Susan Greenhalgh, review of The Chosen Lives of Childfree Men, p. 817.

Publishers Weekly, March 2, 1992, review of Abortion: A Positive Decision, p. 54.

Women's Review of Books, December, 1992, p. 17.

ONLINE

Patricia Wells Lunneborg Web site,http://www.sisterswells.net/ (July 29, 2002).

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