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.
Birthday milestones are celebrated with fanfare until one reaches middle age and beyond when getting old carries a downside. A baby’s first birthday is a time when infancy moves into small personhood. Becoming a teen at 13 is seen as a beginning entry into adulthood. Other rites of passage are: obtaining a driver’s license at 16; earning [...]
Pat Taub
Initially my plan in interviewing Penny Rosenwasser, a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace, was to highlight the work of JVP. But I got more than I bargained for. Not only did I end up with a detailed understanding of JVP, but I received a courageous story of how an insecure young Jewish girl became a national and international [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL “The Gaza Strip is once again the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.” –UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell “It’s the mother in me,” mused Emory University Professor of Philosophy Noëlle McAfee, as she was interviewed on campus about why she witnessed and then tried to peacefully intervene, [...]
Pat Taub
Protests against the genocide in Gaza have become intergenerational on an unprecedented scale. When I marched against the war in Vietnam, a grey-haired protester was a rare sighting. Many elders at the time shared the view of my then 70-something neighbor who commented, “I’ve done my part. It’s up to the younger generation now.” [...]
Pat Taub
While I’m an elder, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to dying, that is until my brother, who’s 20 months younger, announced in a recent late-night phone call that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. (To preserve my brother’s privacy, I’ll refer to him as “G.”) G calmly described his intentions not to live in an advanced [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Imagine you’ve had a visible medical scare: a dermatologist has carved a chunk out of your forehead, or perhaps you are using crutches. But you have a lunch date with your best friend, and as you approach their table, they ask, politely horrified, “What happened to you?” You get three sentences [...]
Pat Taub
This past weekend I watched the women’s final four college basketball games. Young, powerful athletic bodies were on full display. As I became absorbed in the games, I bemoaned the loss of my once athletic body and physical prowess in general, until my thoughts turned to a different definition of power as it applies to the older woman. [...]
Pat Taub
I was in a week long funk brought on by the starvation in Gaza, procrastination over filing my taxes, and a stalled writing project. As I sat brooding, a little voice whispered that I should visit the Portland Art Museum. As an art lover and modest collector, I often find art museums restorative. Fresh out of other ideas, I obeyed that [...]
Pat Taub
I don’t want to close Women’s History month without acknowledging my history with women’s circles, to whom I owe enormous gratitude. My sister circles supported me at the major crossroads in my life. I can’t imagine my life without them. In the ‘70’s there was the circle that accompanied the birth of my first child. David was [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by Dr. JENNIFER BEALL and Dr. LEIGH ANN HIGGINS Did you know that the leading cause of death for women is heart disease? A recent study revealed that 68% of Americans were not aware of this fact. For a long time, the medical community assumed that heart disease affected men and women similarly, but we have now discovered that heart [...]
Pat Taub