When I think about what has made my life meaningful, it’s come from those experiences where I woke up. Events that rocked my world...
Pat Taub is a family therapist, writer and activist and life-long feminist. She hopes that WOW will start a conversation among other older women who are fed up with the ageism and sexism in our culture and are looking for cohorts to affirm their value as an older woman.
Waking Up
When I think about what has made my life meaningful, it’s come from those experiences where I woke up. Events that rocked my world when I was confronted with truths that ran counter to how I was living my life. As a young woman I was awakened as a result of living through the Viet Nam war and the second wave of Feminism. As the Viet [...]
Pat Taub
Motherhood Revisited
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE Yesterday I read a novel that took me back to the fierce experience of becoming a mother under late-stage capitalism. Claire Kilroy perfectly captures the despair and precarious state of infant mothers where there is no mothering for them. The protagonist of SOLDIER SAILOR is at the end of her rope and very nearly [...]
Pat Taub
A Newfound Freedom
More and more older women are discovering a new voice: one that embraces a newfound freedom. Sharon Blackie, author of Hagitude, contends that women tend to lose their inhibitions as they age. Aging often ushers in a new confidence. Many older women describe themselves as not the same person they were 20 or 30 years ago. Living through [...]
Pat Taub
Whom to Remember on Mother’s Day
I propose that we enlarge Mother’s Day to honor not just our biological mothers but our spiritual mothers as well. They are the teachers, neighbors, aunts, family friends and others whose generosity of spirit left an indelible impression on our younger selves. Often these women didn’t have their own children but lovingly nurtured and [...]
Pat Taub
Films to Raise Your Spirits
Many of us are feeling like we’ve been plunged into a spiral of dark news. Daily we are deluged with stories of large-scale migrant deportations, abduction of students who peacefully protested for Gaza, mean-spirited cuts in critical social programs, like Head-Start. At the same time Congress has allotted the defense department a record [...]
Pat Taub
Courage Reimagined
The story of women journalists in Gaza requires a new definition of courage. Many of these women are under 30. Several are young mothers. Daily they risk their lives to document the horrors of the escalating genocide in Gaza. Last year, Israeli bombs killed five women journalists in 24 hours. It’s difficult for most Westerners to [...]
Pat Taub
Do You Suffer From Play Amnesia?
The cartoonist, Lynda Barry, contends that most adults suffer from “play amnesia.” Living in these dark times, many overlook play as a valuable resource to diffuse stress and lighten one’s mood. For example, when your news feed becomes too much to take in, take a break, and turn to humorous writing, like Dorothy Parker or The New [...]
Pat Taub
Missing Meaningful Connections?
I feel sad and misunderstood among family and friends who dismiss my deep despair over the genocide in Gaza. Several friends are down in the dumps over their disconnections with adult children, who hold grudges against them, or who simply don’t make time for them. Thousands of Americans are angry over Trump’s cuts to essential living benefits, [...]
Pat Taub
Building Hope
At lightning speed, Trump is chucking the constitution and flaunting cruel racist policies, throwing many Americans into despair. Climbing out of despair is contingent on building hope. We build hope by joining with like-minded neighbors to protest Trump’s mean-spirited policies. In the words of the Beatles song, “I get by with a little [...]
Pat Taub
The Collapse of Compassion
According to the 2025 Compassion Report from Sanford’s School of Medicine, only 1 in 3 Americans feel compassion for all groups of marginalized people. Lindsay C. Gibson, author of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents thinks that compassion for difficult parents can be a trap. Trump’s massive cuts in social programs are seriously [...]
Pat Taub