MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from  Creative Aging  (Vassiliadis & Romer) - Feminism and Creative Aging   Feminism is a word that sets some people’s teeth on edge (visions of bra-burning and man-hating fanatics flash into mind), but there’s really no other word that describes the revolution in attitudes toward women that took place in the 1970s. Feminism, like it or not, has had an enormous impact on aging Baby Boomers as they make life choices for the next span of their existence.   Feminism, defined, simply means the drive toward equality for women in all aspects of personal and professional life. We have not reached true equality—salaries, for instance, still are not equal between men and women—but compared to the households many Baby Boomers were raised in, things have definitely changed.   My mother, for example, did not have a job while my brother and I were growing up. She was there to greet us every day when we got home from school. A physical education teacher bef...

  Excerpt from  Creative Aging  (Vassiliadis & Romer) - How to Age with Panache   For years I’ve admired the women wearing beautiful scarves, twisted expertly enough to look like they’d just tossed the scarf over their shoulders with a casual knot slipped in front. These women possessed an air of assured confidence that I didn’t feel belonged to me. Whenever I put on a scarf, it felt presumptuous. Who did I think I was? I didn’t belong to this fearless group.   Some of these feelings may have manifested because I didn’t start my work life in an office setting where the appropriate attire was business formal. None of my relatives dressed that way, either. Somehow, whenever I tried wearing a scarf in the mode de jour , it didn’t feel right.   As I’ve aged, though, I’ve grown more comfortable in my own skin. Life marches on, and it’s easier now to let self-doubt and criticism roll off my shoulders and into the if-they-feel-that-way-it’s-their-problem-not-m...