The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.

Gorbachev (1991)
•The Silent Passage: Menopause (1993)
•New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time (1995)
•Understanding Men’s Passages: Discovering the New Map of Men's Lives (1999)
•Hillary's Choice (1999)
•Middletown America: One Town’s Passage from Trauma to Hope (2003)
•Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life (2007)
•Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence (2010)
Novels
•Lovesounds (1970)


Awards
•Seven time recipient of New York Newswomen’s Club Front Page Award for DistinguiGail Sheehyd Journalism
•Washington Journalism Review Award for Best Magazine Writer in America
•New York Public Library Literary Lions Award
•1973 The National Magazine Award for Report Excellence
•1987 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for The Spirit of Survival
•1994 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Dartmouth
•1997 Hospital for Special Surgery Award For Groundbreaking Work In Women’s Health
•2002 American Psychological Associations Presidential Citation
•2011 American Society on Aging Leadership Award. Bush and a woman named "Jennifer". New York magazine
As a journalist Sheehy was one of the original contributors to New York founded by Clay Felker who encouraged his writers to break the conventions of newspaper writing.

Sheehy written biographies and character studies of major twentieth-century leaders including Hillary Clinton both Presidents Bush Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Gail Sheehy (born November 27 1937) is an American author journalist and lecturer.