Ladies of a Certain Age ~ for those invisible powerful, dynamic, vital women

I pulled out my notebook full of notes from a seminar titled “New Challenges for Women Over 60″ I took five or so years ago at Denver’s Academy for Life-Long Learning Institute, taught by Elinor M. Greenburg, EdD., who celebrated her 80^th birthday during one of our classes. I found this seminar so helpful because there is little information available for women about this time period in our lives.  Once, again, we have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves or become stagnant.

Because this seminar was so helpful, I think this class should be taught in every community.  I am working hard to bring it to my city in Western Colorado and will invite you to attend once it is set up.

After all, as ladies-of-a-certain-age, we really do not have role models from the women who brought us into this world.  Our generation, the Baby Boomers, are living longer than our mothers, generally have secured more education than they did, and have worked for a good part of our lives.Thanks to the Women’s Movement and birth-control pill our lives have been very different than our dear ol’ moms.

Dr. Greenberg, Ellie, and fellow college professor and researcher, Fay Wadsworth Whitney, PhD in their book, “A Time of Our Own In Celebration of Women over Sixty,” state – “Compared to the women of the previous generation, today’s women over sixty had experienced many more options in their lives: more education, more financial resources, more career opportunities, and more varied lifestyles and marital choices. They also note that women are living longer than ever before.  Development psychologists in the past, such as Erik Erikson and Gail Sheehy, have mainly dealt with women younger than us. But, now, because there are so many female Baby Boomers, some new research has come out as Ellie noted in her class.

So now, what do we do? Our children are grown and middle-aged, many of our grandchildren are teenagers, we have retired or soon will be, and our honeys have passed,  are sickly, gone away, or struggling with what to do in their retirement. Fortunately, we have time and resources, and our girl friends to support us.

In one of the classes Ellie taught, she talked about dividing our lives into thirds: The first third, 0 to 30; the second third, 30 to 60, and the final third, 60 and older. This was very helpful for me to put all of this in perspective. It also gave me a tool for planning parts of my third third of life, as Ellie puts it.

Here is a replication of my notes from class.My personal information is in italics.