Back in 1972, when I signed on at Ms. magazine, our mission was to document the history women were making every day. Early detractors, like newsman Harry Reasoner, dismissed those efforts by pronouncing the material too sparse to sustain a magazine for more than a few issues. But Ms. kept on filling its pages. It became the place to find out about women athletes, women scientists and executives as well as the brave rebels who were speaking truth to power — women who went unremarked in the rest of the media.

Also unremarked were women whose accomplishments had been lost to history, because no matter how awe-inspiring a woman’s story would have been if she were a man, it was rarely deemed worth including in the record of human accomplishments; if it had been suggested back in the seventies, the phrase “women’s history” would have been considered an oxymoron.

Encore.org, second acts
for the greater good

When Barbara Young courageously transformed herself from immigrant nanny into passionate advocate, she launched an encore career with the power to change the lives of domestic workers across the United States.

In 2001, when Barbara Young signed up for a nanny training class in New York City, she didn’t realize how it would set her on the path for her encore career. She simply thought taking a certificate program could help her acquire extra skills, like CPR. She took pride in her work looking after a six-week-old baby round the clock, and was thirsty for knowledge. “I figured it would be really good for me,” Young says.

by Marc Freedman
Founder and CEO
Encore.org

It’s a great honor to unveil the stories of our seven inspirational Purpose Prize winners for 2013. These individuals come from all walks of life, but hold one thing in common: each is changing the world in what was once seen as the ‘leftover’ years. Through this important work they are simultaneously transforming perceptions about what is possible when the power of social innovation is joined with the unique value of experience. These winners are at the vanguard of a large and growing movement of individuals in their encore years helping to solve many of the toughest problems facing our nation and the world today.

Suzanne Braun Levine
National Girlfriends Day
Huff/Post 50

Girlfriends Day is a great idea. It invites us to search for the words and gestures that can only begin to acknowledge the importance of our own precious “circle of trust.” Moreover, unlike the other designated days of honor, this one isn’t about one person; it is about the alchemy that binds women together.

I’m celebrating National Girlfriends Day, Thursday, Aug. 1 on Huff/Post50 with a new post: “GIRLFRIEND POWER – Your Post-Fifty Posse Can Change the World.” It will have a slide show featuring women friends, women and girls exercising their power, videos and popular quotes from my ebook You Gotta Have Girlfriends. I believe that work and women working together are among the greatest gifts of the Women’s Movement. My years at Ms. magazine taught me that girlfriends give each other the courage to do things we could not have done alone.

Suzanne Braun Levine
Encore.Org

Recently, I spent an exhilarating evening exploring the Encore message with Marci Alboher and close to 200 people who had come to the New York Public Library to find out more about her book The Encore Career Handbook. In our presentation, Marci covered the nuts and bolts of how to envision and find work that matters to you in the second half of life, and I tried to connect the Encore Movement with the Women’s Movement – in which I have spent both halves of my working life.

By Suzanne Braun Levine
Huff/Post 50

In her widely debated new book Lean In, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg called it “the ultimate chicken and egg situation.” She is talking about the endless back and forth about what is holding women back from Having It All, whether the system needs to change in order for women to get ahead or whether women need to get ahead to change the system.

Marc Freedman
Encore.org

As the great midlife migration of baby boomers gathers momentum and scale, long-predicted revolutions in longevity and demography are unfolding in front of us. By 2015 we’ll have more Americans over 60 than under 15 — and that’s just the beginning. Demographers are predicting that more than half the children born in the developed world since 2000 will live to 100.

by Richard Eisenberg
NextAvenue.org

“The new ‘Encore Career Handbook’ is a terrific guide that shows you how to make a difference while making a living. If anyone can figure out how to overcome obstacles at the start of your second act, I think it’s Marci Alboher,” says Richard Eisenberg from PBS’ Next Avenue.”

Suzanne Braun Levine
Huff/Post50

“Having it all” is probably the most misunderstood phrase since, as the late great Erma Bombeck once said about the ERA, “one size fits all.” It has come up whenever there is a backlash — and there have been many — against the increasing empowerment of women. The implication that the women’s movement promised or even endorsed that greedy notion is still with us.