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.