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...
Feminism
Gratitude for the Women’s Circles in My Life
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
Don’t Dismiss the Foremothers in Your Family
I have friends who insist the women in their families didn’t provide examples of independence and/or positive aging. This observation can be skewed by the fact that our mothers and grandmothers didn’t live in our enlightened era where women are consciously aging with an awareness of ageism and sexism, and where the anti-aging industry [...]
Pat Taub
How Women Give Away Their Power
Women give away their power when they accommodate in a way that stifles their voices, where they don’t honor themselves, but silence themselves because they fear upsetting the other and putting the relationship in jeopardy. It’s a hard pattern to break because, since the beginning of time, women have been conditioned to please others, [...]
Pat Taub
Where Did Feminism Go?
Feminism has always been in my blood. Growing up I sensed something was wrong with the ways my mother easily succumbed to my father’s demands. In my college classes I had to endure the ridicule of male students when I uttered an insightful comment. I learned to stuff my anger to get along, until the women’s movement erupted, validating [...]
Pat Taub
Here Comes the Invisible Woman!
80 years have gone by and now it seems I’m not here at all. Here comes the invisible woman. I can’t recall when it first happened. Don’t know how I became so unseen. My tangible self was put on the shelf. Why do I feel so much less then I am? There’s so much more of me now. We might not have a choice, but we still have a voice. [...]
Pat Taub
Working Artist: Cecile Pineda
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE In this pandemic we’ve witnessed a devolution of autonomy for working mothers scrambling to accommodate the loss of daycare while holding down their jobs. As moms still on average earn less than dads — even for the same work — it’s the moms who often reduced their hours to fill the childcare gap in [...]
Pat Taub
Contemporary Suffragettes to the Rescue!
As inauguration day approaches, many of us are on pins and needles, worried that the Ultra Right that staged the Capital insurrection will create more violence when Biden is inaugurated. Washington resembles a third world country with 20,000 National Guard members everywhere the eye can see, and the White House newly cordoned off with metal [...]
Pat Taub
The Straight Scoop on Witches
With Halloween right around the corner, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the origin of witches, and to understand how the village wise woman was turned into a representation of evil, becoming a “witch.” We have to travel back to the 1500’s in Western Europe, when women healers and midwives played a central role in village after [...]
Pat Taub
The Book of Old Ladies – Celebrating Women of A Certain Age in Fiction
GUEST POST by KRISTINE NICHOLSON It’s about time women of a certain age get some respect in this world!!!! The Book of Old Ladies: Celebrating Women of A Certain Age in Fiction is an important catalyst in kick-starting this process. It takes a fresh look at the way women are expected to live as they age. This book stares boldly into [...]
Pat Taub
Are You Addicted to Apologizing?
You might be thinking, “What are you talking about? Apologies are my way of showing respect lest I appear insensitive or rude.” I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a place for apology in our lives, but most women apologize ad nauseum, which puts them at a disadvantage. When we constantly say, “I’m sorry” for a perceived upset [...]
Pat Taub