During Women’s History Month, the tendency is to celebrate famous women in the arts and politics, often ignoring those less famous women who have made an indelible impression on our lives. This year I’m celebrating Women’s [...]
Pat Taub
Did you know, if you’re an older woman, you possess superpowers? On first reading this, you might feel baffled. Many older women have grown used to feeling diminished through the cultural messages which define us in terms of our aging bodies. But we’re much more than our wrinkles, reduced flexibility, puffy tummies and gray hairs. [...]
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
Still Life at Eighty is a reassuring memoir chock full of humor, irreverence, and wisdom. Abigail Thomas greets her old age with vulnerability and spunk, refusing to buy into the familiar worries that often accompany aging. She is refreshingly positive about aging. Thomas has learned to love her solitude, shed guilty feelings, and be unapologetic [...]
Pat Taub
Ageism, defined as discrimination against the older adult, is very real in the lives of many, if not most, American women. The older woman loses her currency for no other reason than she looks her age. At work, her suggestions are frequently rejected; socially she is shunned because she no longer looks young; her adult children consider her [...]
Pat Taub
I’m here to announce that you, the older woman, possess superpowers. I realize this may sound a little crazy because you’re used to feeling diminished through the cultural messages which define you in terms of your aging body. But you’re much more than your wrinkles, reduced flexibility, puffy tummy and gray hair. Maturity has granted [...]
Pat Taub
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