Description
Book SynopsisAs people live longer and better lives, both women and men may look forward to many years in retirement. But living well in retirement depends on a variety of decisions people make as they prepare for and enter this new chapter of life and living. This book is for and about women approaching and experiencing life in their senior years. This largest and fastest-growing part of the population is living in a manner very different from our mothers, whose roles in life were much more predictable and circumscribed than ours. Today's senior women live longer, are healthier, better educated, more involved in the world, and more active than the women who preceded us. Figuring out these uncharted years without role models or guideposts can be challenging, but, here, the authors gather the stories of today's senior women, who have jumped hurdles, answered questions, and made decisions they never saw their mothers make. Through these stories, readers will find fellowship and guidance, wisdom and a
Trade ReviewThis remarkable compendium of stories of and by women of a 'certain age' provides enormous insight and wisdom to all of us as we approach retirement. This underlying message is reinforced in every page; "To thine own self be true." -- Molly D. Shepard, president and CEO, The Leader's Edge/Leaders By Design
The New Senior Woman is essential reading for “women of a certain age” who are on the verge on their retirement years. With its lively conversational style, The New Senior Woman is a self-help book for savvy women who typically eschew self-help. Baby Boom women have re-invented every social institution they’ve encountered, and old age is no exception. This book provides women with helpful yet never sanctimonious advice on how to navigate retirement, downsizing one’s home, health woes, cognitive decline, ever-changing parent-child relations, loss, and the other inevitable changes that accompany aging. Equal parts first-person narrative, scholarship, and self-help, The New Senior Woman invites women to face old age with knowledge, confidence, and guarded optimism. -- Deborah Carr, professor of Sociology, Rutgers University; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (2015-18)
Table of ContentsForeword Introduction 1: My Mother’s Senior Years Were So Different from Mine How Should I Be in This New Age? 2: So Now I’m Retired How Do I Fill My Days So I Feel Good about Myself at Night? 3: I Love My Freedom and Independence How Do I Maintain It? 4: We Love Our Possessions but They Are Starting to Own Us How Do I Downsize My Life? 5: The Children Are Adults Has the Family Dynamic Outgrown Issues of Control, Rebellion, and Sibling Rivalries? How Do We Keep a Sense of Family across Generations? 6: Can’t Use My Computer – or Knit or Rollerblade The World is Changing around Me. How Do I Remain a Part of It? How Do I Push Myself to Learn New Skills? 7: We Laugh about Our ‘Senior Moments’ Should We Fear Them? 8: Rx Health We Can’t Ignore the Changes. What Do We Do about Them? 9: Separation and Loss Are Facts of Life How Do I Handle Them? 10: Sometimes I Feel Safest in My Senior Bubble My World is Shrinking. How Do I Expand It? Finale: A Gathering of the Wisdom We Find in Each Other
