If you live alone, if your family is scattered far and wide, if you recently lost a partner or spouse, if you can’t afford the plane...
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.
History’s Mean Trick: From Wise Woman to Witch
For several hundred years during Europe’s Middle Ages old women played a central role. In village after village they were revered as healers, midwives, and caretakers to the dying. In the mid 1500’s as the Catholic Church sought to extend its power, the influential village wise women were a clear threat to a looming patriarchy. Church [...]
Pat Taub
It’s Carpe Diem Time!
Carpe Diem, the Latin phrase that means “seize the moment,” is often bantered around to inspire one to take advantage of the present moment, or not to postpone til tomorrow what you can do today. For older women, carpe diem is especially relevant. We don’t have a lot of time. If a new opportunity greets you, why not embrace it rather [...]
Pat Taub
Women Making a Difference: Kathy Kelly
It doesn’t happen every day, but when it does you are visibly moved. You’re in the presence of an individual whose commitment, passion and tireless work for humanitarian causes stops you in your tracks. Kathy Kelly is one of those women who stops you in your tracks. Her record as a peace activist stretches back to 1978. Kathy’s petite [...]
Pat Taub
WOW: A Blog for Older Women, 60+
Creating a Conversation: Welcome to my new blog, “Women’s Older Wisdom,” or WOW. I want to fill a gap in the blogosphere for blogs addressed to women past 60, bucking the current trend where blogs for older women consist largely of fashion and beauty tips, as if successful aging depended on looking young! I refuse to buy into our [...]
Pat Taub
Modern Day Witch Hunts: Denying Women Abortions
From time to time, I will publish a post for “Flashback Friday” from my prior blog. The first in this series originally appeared on July 24, 2013. In this post, I attempted to place the Right-wing hysteria over abortion rights in an historical context. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined that two years down the road, [...]
Pat Taub
Does Dining Alone Intimidate You?
When I tell other women my age that I frequently eat out alone, they tend to look at me like I have two heads. When they catch their breath, they say something like, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” Or, “How did you work up the nerve?” I understand their reactions. It’s not always easy for me to walk into a restaurant alone. More often [...]
Pat Taub
Life After Retirement . . . Doesn’t Have
to be a Black Hole
Many older women find themselves feeling empty when they retire. At work they were valued for their contributions and intellect, while enjoying the camaraderie of workplace associates. Once they retire they often face a big void. Some try to fill it with hobbies, travel, extended lunches with close friends, or taking courses at the local senior [...]
Pat Taub
Are You Guilty of Romancing the Past?
My elegant 82 year old widowed neighbor speaks longingly of the years she lived in Italy during the time her husband was a Renaissance Arts scholar. Her three children learned to speak Italian and developed a passion for foreign travel. Another friend, who recently turned 80, frequently reminisces about her younger head-turning beautiful self—she’s [...]
Pat Taub
Getting Old Doesn’t
Have to Suck
While I have my share of aging complaints: arthritis, a jaw line that is no longer firm–ditto for my major body parts, sleep problems, and bouts of loneliness, I can find plenty to cheer about in the becoming-an-old-lady department. For starters, I’m more confident. I no longer agonize about my choices. I don’t own the guilt [...]
Pat Taub
Learning to be Old My Way
I’m very clear that I want to grow old differently from the old lady personas adopted by many of our grandmothers and mothers, who donned polka dot dresses, dispensed little candies from their pocket books, and smiled demurely while keeping their opinions to themselves. Nor do I want to grow old having succumbed to plastic surgery to peel [...]
Pat Taub