Before I retired as an associate professor of communication, I read over 40 books on retirement, aging, and transitions. I also read hundreds of articles and studies related to aging. A few months before I actually ended my teaching career, I also became a certified professional retirement coach. Then it hit me –much of the material I was reading didn’t address the difference between men’s and women’s experiences as we age. Yes, there are some similarities, but there are some significant differences as well. I joined the Life Planning Network recently and someone told me I might enjoy reading The New Senior Woman. I just started reading it -that’s how I learned about ElderChicks. My own work is focused on positive aging with a specific focus on sex and gender differences. Long live ElderChicks!
Positive Aging by Paula Marie Usrey
February 10, 2020 by ElderChicks
13 Responses
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Thanks for writing, Paula. My late do-author and friend, Barbara Fleisher, and I agreed with you. That’s why we wrote The New Senior Man after The New Senior Woman. You can find both on Amazon or B&N on line. My new book, How Seniors Are Saving the World will be out in June. BTW I’m a long-time member of LPN.
I’ll watch for your new book when it comes out. Thank you for creating this online community that provides space for us to talk to each other about our experiences as elder women. Love it! I’m just finding my way around LPN, but I hope to connect with others more in that community as well.
Thank you, for that encouraging message. I look forward to getting the books from the library. Best wishes in your adventures. (Your new career sounds fabulous).
Thank you for responding. I’m looking forward to connecting with other women in this community. We’re learning together.
Hey Paula…I too am a recent participant of Elder Chicks and am in the process of reading The New Senior Woman. I’ve long said that there is so much information out there about the physical and financial aspects of this aging process but almost nothing about the mental/emotional process and it is a process. I’m in my second year of my eighth decade and discover something new…sometimes good, sometimes not so good about this aging process almost every day. So keep searching, studying and writing about your findings. There are so many of us looking for all the help we can get.
Joycie,
Thank you for your comments and encouragement. I want to keep learning, and I think I’ll learn a lot from this community.
Excellent observation and so true. Most of social-psychological studies are written and researched by men and they are filled with misunderstanding when it comes to a woman’s experience of life. Aging for women varies as well, depending on her experience. A woman who’s life has consisted of child rearing and caretaking will experience aging vastly differently from a woman who has had a thriving career or work life, with or without children. In the first case there may be some regrets or a “last chance” feeling to accomplish things she didn’t do when the kids were growing. In the second case there may be some sadness around not being engaged and vital in the world of work. Very different experiences!
Thanks for sharing your insights about different experiences in aging, depending on the path women take prior to reaching that point. As soon as I read your post, it made sense – something that I need to be examining more closely too.
Paula, Looks like you struck a nerve here! Thank you again for writing. This sent me back to the “Related” articles shown above. All three resonate today, but the one by my daughter and blogmeister, Tory Bers, and its comments by people both still with us and not, were a joy to read and to think about. It is people’s own experiences, and those of others we learn about that bring so much meaning to our lives. All the statistics in the world don’t change us: life changes us.
So true! Though I must admit that learning about ways to increase healthspan rather than just lifespan has been especially helpful. Reading the wonderful stories in The New Senior Woman illustrates how unique each of us are as well as pointing to some common themes. We are women. We are strong. We are beautiful – all of us!
Hello you wonderful Chicks!!!! And any dudes out there; old, young or otherwise.
I do not march and feel no compulsion to do so. I am not a chick. I am a guy—70 this year. I do want to respond to Paula Marie Usrey.
Paula, it is refreshing to see a woman whose work focuses on the many wonderful contrasts, differences and polarities those of us who embrace the gendered aspects of embodied existence experience.
I find gratitude in this discovery!
So much of modern politically correct languageing and communication forms are now required to appear gender neutral (particularly here in California). The images of a man in pants and a woman in skirts have been removed from public restrooms. Restrooms are now identified by the image of a triangle in a circle.
It starts to seem to my old eyes that this effort to include all and every in one homogenous blob begins to erase some essential essence that is a truth of any individuals existence.
While I may still be a male chauvinist, I am certainly no homophobic and do not seek to hold any being in any confined space; mental, physical, spiritual or cultural. In the early 70’s I worked with a labor coop that survived on forestry contracts with government and private contracts on commercial timberlands. I watched as a group of honest hard-working young women took the Ivy League intellectualizations of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem out into the mountains and the forests to make them real. As they did, they discovered (decided?) that were all Gay Lesbian Feminists.
I did not watch. I participated. It was Oregon in the 70’s. We were all in it together.
I celebrate and find no need to diminish all of the qualities that create unique individuality.
Do you have a web site Paula? Is there a way to take a closer look at your work?
Thank you for what you do!
John Ivey
Thank you, John, for your comments and feedback; you’ve inspired me. Here is the site address you asked about: https://boomerbestu.com
John, one way to take a closer look at Paula’s work, might be to read her book.