Photographs by Celeste Sloman

July 30, 2019

Toni Tunney had been at her job at a small employment agency for no more than a week, cold-calling prospective clients, when, as she tells it, her boss sidled up, demanding, in the argot of the day, that she put out or get out.

Ms. Tunney, a retired clinical psychologist in her 70s, was 23 at the time, and panicky. “We were in a recession,” she recalled. “Jobs were hard to come by. In those days I had to scramble to buy groceries.” No matter. She left.

“Stuff like that stays with you,” she said. “Even today it scares me to think of it.”

As for her boss: “I’ll never forget him,” she said. Then, in a burst of long suppressed rage, she named him.

The question remains: What took her so long?

“At a certain age — psychologically, biogenetically, I don’t know — you get to the place when a switch flips,” Ms. Tunney said. “You tell yourself, ‘I’m done.’”