Finding material to write about is not always easy. One route is the memoir, which is built on revealing material you know well. Or you can write about something you don’t know well but would like to learn about. I combine the two by weaving some – but not all – of my own life story with answers to the question “What’s going on with women?” I have spent most of my professional life chronicling that transformation of women’s lives at different stages, and the experience has, in turn, inspired and empowered my own. Every time over the past forty years that I posed the question “What’s going on with women?” the answers were different.

I first became curious about something “going on” was back in the seventies when I was editor of Ms. magazine. Our readers were high school students and grandmothers, home-makers and rebels but if there was one driving editorial principle behind that breakthrough journalistic adventure, it was that if one woman was experiencing something, it was certain that other women were too, only they were not talking about it; the magazine needed to tell such stories and open up the conversation.

When in my early fifties I began to feel dissatisfied and restless that faith in shared experience led me to suspect that there was “something going on.” I checked it out with other women, and sure enough, they felt it too. Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood was the result of my search for understanding and reassurance that I wasn’t crazy – or under some menopausal spell – and neither were the hundreds of women I talked to. (I have always loved a T-shirt I saw once that said, “This is not a hot flash. It’s a power surge.”) After that book came out, other women who were in the process of navigating that transition came forward, and described their versions of our shared experience. The more we shared, the more I began to see some guiding insights that would be helpful to anyone negotiating the bumpy road to the new stage of life. For me Fifty Is the New Fifty: Ten Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood was a kind of personal stock-taking based on what I had learned form other women’s discoveries and disappointments as well as my own.

My newest book (due our next Valentine’s Day) – How We Love Now: Sex and The New Intimacy in Second Adulthood - is a deeper exploration of the new stage of life we are defining as we go along through the all-important lens of love. And sex.

In this case there was another dimension to the “What’s going on?” challenge: Not only was I exploring my own hang-ups and choices, and not only was I gathering experiences from other women, but the women themselves were hearing what they were saying about themselves for the first time. In many cases – especially in the context of sex – they hadn’t dared put into words, even to themselves, why they were doing what they were doing or longing to do.

“I can’t believe I am telling you this. I must be crazy” was a common exclamation. I knew – and they need to hear – that they weren’t crazy or alone, that what they were concerned or curious about was on the minds of countless other women. I write to enter into a supportive conversation among women like them – on the page.

– Suzanne Braun Levine

Happy Anniversary, She Writes!

”She Writes is a community, virtual workplace, and emerging marketplace for women who write, with over 15,000 active members from all 50 states and more than 30 countries. Leveraging social media tools and harnessing women’s collaborative power, She writes is fast becoming the destination for all women who write.”

www.shewrites.com

I’m not big on change. Most of us aren’t. That becomes a bigger problem the more choices we have and the more restless we feel. Second Adulthood is about choices and restlessness and trying something new, but that means change, and many of us get stuck at the edge of the diving board.

And some of us get a push, which at the time seems like the worst day of our lives. In my work that happened to me twice. The first time the magazine I loved was sold and the new owners wanted to bring in new blood; otherwise I would have stayed on forever – slug that I am – and missed out on the rest of my career. The second time, after several years of tension with the publisher, I was asked “to step down.” Being fired is one of life’s most devastating experiences; how can you go out and sell yourself when you have just been pronounced a failure? In my case I also had to face the fact that I was at the end of the road in terms of magazine editing – there simply weren’t any left that I was right for.

My well-meaning friends peppered me with ideas, most of which had to do with writing. After all, writing and editing are both word jobs. What they didn’t understand was that the way I saw it, editing was about making someone else’s ideas better, and writing was about having your own ideas and putting them out there. I had gotten all the way to my fifties without feeling I had anything to say. Because I felt I had no other choice – because I was pushed – I began to explore what I wanted to tell people. That was – as many people who are dislodged from one kind of work say – the “best thing that could have happened.”

What’s more it couldn’t have happened any earlier. By the time I was fired I was well into the delicious “I don’t care what other people think” stage of reinvention. The reward of that liberating defiance is that you begin to believe “I care more what I think.” A lifetime of listening for what other people thought, felt, needed – listening for other voices – had muted my own. But having to write – having to express my own ideas, with conviction – has, over a decade later, has enabled me to speak up, speak out, and say what I know. Change, however unwelcome at the time, turned out to be a gift.

Somewhere along the way someone called my attention to the W.H. Auden’s poem “Leap before you look”; it has helped me understand the paralyzing power of risk-taking by suggesting that “fear” and “change” can be dealt with separately. The first line is “The sense of danger must not disappear”; that is where the joy of discovery comes from. The concluding line is “Our dream of safety has to disappear.” We learn that lesson every day. As we experience aging, we understand two things: that there is danger ahead and that we need to let go of the notion that if we give our all, we can make safety happen. Which is why the best place to be is in the present. So leap!

Resources:

AARP
http://www.aarp.org

Encore Careers
http://www.encore.org

The Transition Network
www.thetransitionnetwork.org

Catalyst
http://catalyst.org

Center for Women’s Business Research
http://www.nfwbo.org

Count Me In
http://www.count-me-in.org

Retirement or What Next?
http://www.retirementorwhatnext.com

SeniorNet
http://www.seniornet.org

Women@WorkNetwork
http://womenaworknetwork.com

Mary Eileen Williams, the warm, lively and informative host of “Feisty Side of Fifty Radio,” promises her listeners: “Give me just fifteen minutes of your time and I’ll give you interviews with authors, actors, and experts who will inspire you to make significant and positive changes in your own life.” And, she delivers on the promise.

Her recent guests include:

• Kathy Smith, leading force in the fitness industry for close to 30 years whose latest video – Ageless with Kathy Smith: Staying Strong – celebrates growing better with age.
• Louise Knight, author of Jane Addams: Spirit in Action, talks about the remarkable and revolutionary Jane Addams and her essay on aging written in 1914: “Need a Woman Over Fifty Feel Old?”
• Marc Freedman, author, boomer expert, and CEO of Civic Ventures whose latest book, The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, is a call to redraw the map of life and what we typically know as retirement.
• Christina Haag, author of Come to the Edge, a tribute to John F. Kennedy Jr. and a look back at their fifteen-year friendship.
• Linda Francis Lee, bestselling author of Emily and Einstein, an exploration of second chances, reinvention and redemption.
• Kim Johnson Gross, author of What to Wear for the Rest of Your Life: Ageless Secrets of Style, talks about latest trends and tips for Spring fashions.
• Barbara Hannah Grufferman, Huffington Post columnist and author of The Best of Everything After 50: The Experts’ Guide to Style, Sex, Health, Money, and More, who motivates and inspires women to reach for their dreams.
• Betsy Werley, Executive Director of The Transition Network, shares her thoughts and professional experience on transitioning from the corporate world to a career in the nonprofit sector.

Visit Feisty Side of Fifty Radio for LIVE, On Demand or Archived programs. All programs available on iTunes (FREE). You can listen to recent programs here – click on Listen and Share (right sidebar).

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/feisty-side-of-fifty
http://www.feistysideoffifty.com

Women Redefining Life after 50…

Smarter, Bolder, Older™ – a one-day event for women 50+ – grew out of my own experience of aging and conversations with other women. I am committed to changing the stereotype of aging and loss in midlife to one of vitality, embracing new opportunities and possibilities as women in midlife and beyond get clear on what matters and makes the most of this stage of their lives.

I wanted to create an environment where women could come together to share, network and experience this time in our lives as unique and exciting. More than seventy women gathered in a welcoming space in April 2011 for a rich dialogue (in Upper Nyack, NY) and together we explored common questions:

• What’s important to you at 50+ and how is it different than in previous years?
• What energizes and inspires you about growing older?
• What challenges you?
• What would you like to experience and create?

We shared stories about aging, honored women who have led inspiring lives into their 70’s and beyond, and participated in guided lyrical movement patterns to explore power, purpose and transformation. An art installation featured images from the upcoming book: “Goddess on Earth, Portraits of the Divine Feminine” (LUSH Press, July 2011) and we had a performance by Moving Mantras.

We donated the registration fee to The Rockland Community Foundation’s programs for Women and Girls. This was an important aspect of creating the event.

The entire day and response to the event was exhilarating:

“Amazing opportunity…I’m feeling more energized and more focused already!”

“Thank you just doesn’t seem enough for the wonder of the day at ‘Smarter, Bolder, Older.’ And – as many testified — ‘get our bearings’ once again for own creativity and our place in the world”

Enid Weishaus, MSW, founder of Smarter, Bolder, Older™. She previously held positions as Regional Director for Senators Clinton and Gillibrand in the Lower Hudson Valley. Enid teaches success strategies and presentation skills to women who want to be entrepreneurs. For more information, please contact: enidweishaus@optonline.net.

By now it should come as no surprise that our foremothers did know a thing or two, but it is always stunning to come upon words of wisdom that are totally relevant today.

My friend Louise Knight, who has written the definitive biography of the reformer Jane Addams recently passed along the essay below. What is stunning here is how these words written almost a century ago speak to the current conversation about Second Adulthood or the Encore stage of life (just check out www.encore.com) in which we have an opportunity turn the wisdom, expertise, and confidence of our pre-fifty years – what Addams calls “moral energy”- to making our world a better place.
– Suzanne Braun Levine

“Need a Woman Over Fifty Feel Old?”
An editorial by Jane Addams
Ladies’ Home Journal

Jane Addams (1860-1935) was 54 years old when she wrote this essay at the invitation of the editors of the Ladies’ Home Journal, which in 1914 was the nation’s most widely read women’s magazine. At the time, Addams was the most famous and admired, as well as the most politically accomplished, woman in the country.

Two years before, she had seconded the nomination of former president Theodore Roosevelt as the presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, and she regularly testified before and lobbied state legislatures and Congress on behalf of such progressive legislation as banning child labor, providing women with the vote and the eight-hour work day, and, in the case of Congress, defeating proposed immigration restrictions.

In 1914 she was serving on the board of the NAACP and the Women’s Trade Union League, was as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Progressive Party, had just stepped down as a vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and within a few months would be elected president of the Woman’s Peace Party and the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace. The readers of the Journal knew that Addams was herself an example of a woman over fifty who, to say the least, did not feel old.

– Louise W. Knight, author, Jane Addams: Spirit in Action (W.W. Norton, 2010) and Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy (University of Chicago, 2005), website: www.louisewknight.com

“One of the most remarkable changes in the lives of women in this country has been the postponement of old age. Chiefly because they had nothing else to do, our grandmothers, after their children had been reared and safely launched into homes of their own, expected to give their remaining years to a general oversight of the households of their sons and daughters and to the upbringing of their grandchildren, confirming both as nearly as possible to their own excellent although somewhat inflexible standards.

It is useless to deny that this admirable and highly domestic occupation occasionally led to difficulties. A vigorous woman, accustomed to the cares of a large household in which her word was law, when deprived of an absorbing occupation could not all at once reduce herself to a negligible quantity, and the traditional “mother-in-law” was quite as much of the victim of circumstances as was the cherished family upon whom her unused energies were expended.

The easy assumption of old age under the circumstances is readily understood, for when the individual valued herself largely as a repository of wisdom and tradition it was quite in character to don a cap, and to sit, knitting innumerable pairs of stockings, where she might easily be consulted. Almost any family album will reveal these sweet-faced women, a fold of linen over their placid breasts, a cap upon their smooth hair, whom we are happy to claim as our grandmothers, and yet if we knew their exact ages, in almost every instance we would be surprised to discover how young they were, many of them scarcely fifty years old. They assumed that life was over for them at the very time their husbands were still in the midst of business and professional activities, often receiving their highest honors and rendering their most distinguished public services after they were fifty years old.

We regret the passing of these charming women and we certainly deplore those women of seventy years occasionally seen rushing from one social function to another, attired in modish gowns, with picture hats surmounting their elaborately coifed heads. Although so dissimilar it is nevertheless true that both types of women are without adequate activity. The former dissembled a placidity which certainly they could not have felt in every instance; the latter continue a round of vapid occupations which they fear to drop lest they be faced by insupportable leisure. Both are obviously without absorbing interests.

Happily there is another type of woman between the ages of fifty and seventy years of whom every section of America has its shining examples; first discovered perhaps through church sewing circles and missionary societies, although the widely spread Woman’s’ Christian Temperance Union organizations had much to do with enabling her to find herself. The Woman’s Club movement has also been a great factor in developing the powers of women who are over fifty years old. Many of them learned to write papers, to address audiences, to preside over meetings, to organize committees for the first time after they had passed that age. The women’s clubs also gave to thousands of women their first sense of responsibility in regard to public education and civic reform. It was largely through the efforts of these older club women that kindergartens, manual training and domestic science were introduced into the public-school system of America. In many cities these women were also the pioneers in agitating for public playgrounds and vacation schools.

These same elderly women who, in their youth, had been sheltered from any knowledge of crime and the ways of criminals, and who would have considered it most unladylike even to refer to a “disreputable woman” [a prostitute], were often responsible for securing matrons in the police stations, teachers in the jails, the establishment of juvenile courts and the abolition of vice [saloon, gambling, drug-dealing and brothel] districts. These women are now in no small measure responsible for municipal concerts, for crafts and trades schools and for exhibitions for the encouragement of local artists. In their girlhood they knew no exercise more violent than playing croquet, no dietary more rigid than preserves and sponge cake for supper, no notion but that all diseases were Heaven-sent, and that a certain number of children must inevitably die in infancy, but they are now agitating for public gymnasiums and municipal baths, for pure-food laws and a clean milk supply; they are quite tigerlike in insisting that all children shall be protected from contagious diseases through school nursing and medical inspection, and they have come to consider a high death rate among infants a disgrace and a reproach to the community. . .

One woman of sixty whom I know is most widely useful in many church activities, not only in the local circles of her denomination but also as president of a State organization. Her husband died several years ago, her children are both married and living in two distant cities. It would be hard to imagine a more desolate life than hers might be did she not have an outlet, not only for her splendid energy, but also for her social gifts and her affection. Her small but charming house does not give an impression of emptiness, but it is as if it were the center of beneficent activity, a place where a woman dwelt not alone but surrounded by the affection of countless friends. It would be absurd to say that if she had remained “quietly at home,” exchanging social amenities with her neighbors, her life would have been so filled with satisfactory interests..

Another woman over fifty years old [Florence Kelley] is the executive head of a National organization [the National Consumers League] which has for years urged and secured better conditions for working women and children, both through legislation and voluntary effort. She has moved from one difficult piece of social organization to another until probably no one else in the United States is more conversant with the conditions surrounding working women and children in every part of the country, and with the laws which have been enacted on their behalf and with the efficiency of their enforcement. . . .

That weariness and dullness which inhere in both domestic and social affairs when they are carried on by men alone will no longer be a necessary attribute of public life when such gracious and gray-haired women become a part of it, and when new social movements, in which men as well as women are concerned, naturally utilize woman’s experience and ability.

Ever-widening channels are gradually being provided through which woman’s increasing moral energy may flow, and it is not too much to predict that in the end public affairs will be amazingly revivified from those new fountainheads fed in the upper reaches of woman’s matured capacity.”

– Jane Addams
Ladies Home Journal
October 1914, Vol. 31 page 7.

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We each have our personal demons that show up in the middle of the night shrieking a litany of worst-case scenarios: What if I don’t have enough money to support myself? What if that nagging ache is something really serious? What if I can’t figure out what to do next? What’s wrong with meeeeeee?

They can drain our waking resolve.

Here’s my advice – underscored by the point that there is no right way to deal with fear, taking risks, work, speaking up, relationships…and the changes in second adulthood. The only constant and Life Lesson is: “Nothing Changes, if Nothing Changes”:

Tell your Demons To Shut Up!

I had a friend who literally did that–out loud!–whenever she awoke full of doubts and self-pity. Another woman dismisses those panicky voices with a sarcastic “Thanks for sharing.” A stern”mommy voice” may come in handy here.

Engage Just One Demon.

The conversations that take place in the dark of night of the soul can be transformative. Single out just one of the fears that bring on a cold sweat. And stare it down. Finding a new financial adviser to review your “dire” situation, switching medications for a chronic medical condition, or instituting a weekly let-it-all-hang-out lunch with two or three open, lively women should silence at least one of the voices of doom. At least temporarily.

Next, we’ll tackle Risks and Work…

Copyright © Suzanne Braun Levine, “Fifty Is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for
Women in Second Adulthood” (Viking/2009).

Second Adulthood is all about change…the changes that befall us and those we generate. The first without the second creates a miasma of disappointment. The second, if it doesn’t incorporate the first, is frustrating and discouraging…

While some women can redesign their lives from top to bottom–and keep on doing it–most of us can only manage small changes at first…The changes need not be as dramatic as parachuting out of a plane or as operatic as running off with cable guy, but they will probably feel as momentous.

Going back to school may be too big an undertaking right now; try exchanging a regular TV show for the crossword puzzle every night. Opening a craft store would be fun, but maybe all you can handle for the moment is a pair of knitting needles and an evening at the local yarn shop with others in the same boat. Quitting an oppressive job may be a necessary objective, but getting a wardrobe together for the job search may revise your self-image, which can make taking a life-changing risk imaginable.

Moreover, changing the metabolism of our days is not only about adding on experiences; it may be just as much of a healthy shake-up to pull back from a time commitment, an emotional involvement, or a long-standing responsibility….

The change can even be a one-time thing. I know a woman who dared herself to sign up for a Harley motorcycle course for women over forty. She did, and she loved it. But she says, she’d never do it again “Just driving a motorcycle one time set me free!”

Big or small, moving forward or retreating, a change of any kind gets the currents moving…What does matter–very much–is the deceptively simple insight that nothing changes, if nothing changes.

The good news is that any action–large or small, proactive or reactive, affirming or denying–will make something happen. I’ve paired each piece of advice with its opposite to underscore the point that there is no, and there can never be a one-size-fits-any-two-women, let all one an all-women Guide to Change: Scale up. Scale down. Acquire. Discard. Give. Take. Join a Group. Quit a Group. A Master Plan. Unplan. Tell Your Demons to Shut up! Engage Just One Demon. Go for it!

Whatever act seems most doable is the one to start with. It doesn’t matter what we change first or even whether that change will make any difference in the long run. Anything that gets you moving will help get you where you want or need to be.

Copyright © Suzanne Braun Levine, “Fifty Is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood” (Viking, 2009).

Where do You Want/Need to be?

Join my conversation with host Mary Eileen Williams:

Wednesday, April 20 (1:00 p.m., EST)
Feisty Side of Fifty Radio (Live)

http://www/blogtalkradio.com/feisty-side-of-fifty
http://feistysideoffifty.com

Now that the majority of us boomers have blown out the candles on our half-century birthday cake (and many have waved goodbye to our fifties altogether), I like to say we’ve become the generation to transform the spirit and style of aging. Remaining true to our trailblazing history, we’re far from dissolving into the invisible shrinking violets older women are “supposed” to be. No way—our bodacious, revolutionary spirit is showing zero signs of wilting. In fact, thanks to a hearty dose of menopausal zest, it’s going stronger than ever before!

Special Club for Feisty Boomers

There’s one special club that embodies our celebrated joie de vivre and legendary spunk, The Red Hat Society, and this remarkable organization has become the largest women’s social club in the world. Although attendance at this group’s events will have you seeing red, members are encouraged to pursue the five F’s: fun, friendship, freedom, fulfillment, and fitness. (I might suggest a sixth F—for feistiness. That particular descriptor may have been officially omitted, but it’s certainly implied.)

The Red Hat Society is dedicated to reshaping the way women are viewed in today’s culture and, in pursuit of this mission, has created an impressive legacy of achievements. One of the most recent accomplishments this legendary club can boast is inclusion in the premier cultural collection of the land: The Smithsonian Institution! Yes, the original red fedora purchased by founder Sue Ellen Cooper as well as her purple-feather boa are now nattily displayed in all their colorful glory.

Sue Ellen, the Exalted Queen Mother herself, and Debra Granich, CEO of the Red Hat Society, have graciously shared their thoughts on what it means to wear the eye-catching combo of red and purple in a recent interview on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio. Be certain to tune in to this very special broadcast with these two remarkable women.

In fact, you won’t want to miss a single word. With advice such as “gaudy is good” and “give yourself a title and call yourself a queen” you know these women are celebrating the feisty side of fifty. In the oh-so-colorful fashion befitting the boomers’ spirit and style of aging, the Red Hat Society is one fabulous group. And, better yet, there’s not a single invisible shrinking violet in sight!

Mary Eileen Williams - M.A., N.C.C. – is the founder of Feisty Side of Fifty/ Boomer Women – Celebrating Women 50 and Better, with close to twenty years as a career/life transition counselor, workshop facilitator, and writer. Her most recent book: Land the Job You Love! 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50. www.feistysideoffifty.com

Red Hat Society – For more information – How to join, Find a chapter near you or Start a chapter – please visit: www.redhatsociety.com

With your kids finally leaving home, your vision of the years ahead beginning to come into focus, and your relationships narrowing down to a precious few, you are just beginning to explore what it means to care for yourself –– when the call to care-giving comes. Parents who had been taking care of each other suddenly lose it; partners who had been mighty oaks crack; friends who had been there for you suddenly need your support; kids in crisis show up on the doorstep.

“The Sandwich Generation”

Ours is called “the sandwich generation” because we often find ourselves squeezed by responsibilities for children and long-lived parents at the same time. The AARP reports that seventy percent of its members still provide financial support for their grown kids and forty percent are helping support both kids and parents. The same AARP report offers the prospect of another dependent – ourselves. “The number of 75-plus households headed by single women is projected to grow from fewer than 6 million in 2010 to 13 million by 2050.”

The sandwich is turning into a triple-decker. How do we balance our care-giving commitments with the need to develop care-GETTING skills?

“You can’t give up your life…”

“You can’t give up your life,” well-meaning advisors remind you as you embark on a care-taking journey with someone you love. But you will have to give up some of what was your life before the fateful phone call or event; the challenge of “care-getting” is to hold on to enough of the rest. “Get out of the house, spend some time with yourself, rediscover who you are and what you like to do when you are neither cheer-leading nor nursing,” one long-time care-giver told me.

Another good piece of advice I heard was to mobilize your own circle of caring volunteers. Many times friends and family want to lend a hand but don’t know how. It is helpful to be specific in your requests – “Can you bring a supply of soup this weekend?’ “Can you help me with my taxes?” “Can you research the visiting nurse options?” – and to give some thought to who among your volunteers is the person most suitable to carry out the request.

The Caring Collaborative

A very innovative set up – The Caring Collaborative – artfully combines care-giving and care-getting. The idea was conceived by Charlotte Frank, a co-founder of The Transition Network, who found herself in need of care following surgery. The CC is a collective opened to TTN members; those who sign up join a time bank in which they accumulate care-getting time they can draw on by helping other members in need – taking them to doctor’s appointments, doing grocery shopping, preparing meals, filling out paperwork.

Care-getting is a way of practicing Life Lesson Number Six: Do Unto Yourself As You Have Been Doing Unto Others in my book FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY: It doesn’t mean that you have to neglect those you have cared for so tenderly all these years, but that you begin to care for yourself with the same devotion.

Resources:

AARP - a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50 and over improve the quality of their lives, founded in 1958 by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus who had established the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) in 1947 – to promote her philosophy of productive aging, and in response to the need of retired teachers for health insurance.

www.aarp.org

The Transition Network (TTN) – an inclusive community of professional women 50 and forward whose changing life situations lead them to seek new connections, resources and opportunities. As a national organization TTN is a voice for women who continue to change the rules.

www.thetransitionnetwork.org

The TTN Caring Collaborative - Members Helping Members – an exclusive TTN program that brings members together in a formal exchange of health focused services and information. Using “time banking” software, members both give and receive assistance, matching those needing care and information with those who are willing to help.

www.ttncaringcollaborative.org

Showing a bit of attitude with my friends. (I’m the one in the middle)

By Mary Eileen Williams
Founder, Feisty Side of Fifty

Boomers are the first generation of women to openly claim our rights to personal power and parity with men since the decline of the Goddess cultures. The first feminists fought long and hard for women’s suffrage. But, once they got the vote, many seemed to lose steam and returned to stoke the home fires. Rosie the Riveter was the first female to roll up her sleeves and openly display a formidable muscle, at war’s end she was quickly pushed out of the factory – asked to trade in her blowtorch for an apron.

But boomer women have more or less kept breaking new ground in issues of authority, control, and gender politics (thank you Hillary Clinton and cohorts). Moreover, now that most of us have passed our half-century birthday, our sense of personal power surfaces like never before. Hormonal changes, pent up personal needs after years spent deferring our own to favor those of our children, and the growing knowledge that we won’t be around forever, combine to create a mighty, menopausal drive. Midlife calls us to refocus, individuate, and access our own sense of mastery and achievement.

In light of this drive, Gloria Feldt and Suzanne Braun Levine have joined me on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio to share their thoughts on claiming and enhancing this menopausal gift. Both have lived their entire professional lives in the epicenter of the Women’s Movement and are well versed on the topic. Gloria’s latest book: No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power and Suzanne’s most recent work: Fifty is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood combine to create the ideal framework from which to identify ways we can access our growing personal power.

I invite you to invest 30-minutes, listen to the show, and make a giant leap in your own journey towards personal fulfillment. Both Gloria and Suzanne continue to help us enhance the female experience in our years past fifty and your time will be well spent as you listen to their insights.

One of the categories I selected for the “Feisty Side of Fifty” blog is “Aging with Attitude.” It’s high time we claim our attitude, our feistiness, and our power and forever transform the way society views women of maturity. Boomers, after all, have always been trailblazers. It’s up to us and we’re up to the challenge.

Thanks for listening and tell your friends.

www.feistysideoffifty.com

www.gloriafeldt.com