Social scientists have traditionally assumed that marriage and widowhood are the crucial life events for women, and that retirement has no effect on women's social relationships. To explore the relationship between women's work status and perception of peer and power relationships, a thematic apperceptive procedure was used. A sample of 1,428 respondents was interviewed, including 802 women randomly selected from two larger samples used in a 1957 study and a 1976 replication. The same apperceptive pictures were used in both the l957 and 1976 studies. Preliminary analysis of the data on the relationship between work status and status perception showed a highly significant association between women's work status and interpersonal orientations in 1976, suggesting that historical changes have occurred since l957 in the meaning of work and retirement for women. Retired women showed a sharp increase in concerns about power, powerlessness, and status, and a corresponding decline in orientations towards peers and affiliative pursuits. These findings suggest important clinical and social policy implications for those concerned with the social needs of women during retirement. (JAC)