Adulthood for females is a complex maturational process, rooted in the mother-daughter relationship. To investigate the dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship and its influence on maturing, 20 women, ranging in age from 30 to 75, were interviewed for 6 to 8 hours over a 1-month period. The subjects were chosen for their self-reflective qualities as measured by the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test. The interviews focused on the subjects' perceptions of their adult lives. The results showed that although subjects reported that they began to define themselves as adults when they made choices of their own and affirmed commitments to others, steps that often took the form of marriage and motherhood, the process of maturing hinged on reshaping the mother-daughter relationship so that it became reciprocal. The common thread between all accounts was that no matter how self-sufficient a daughter had been, coming to terms with this relationship was a nodal point in maturing. The bond between daughters and mothers, when it was malleable, supported rather than inhibited adult growth. (Author/BL)