Women’s role in the world outside daughter/girlfriend/wife/mother even now, is dubious at best. Women still occupy space differently to men and find the topics of ambition and money tricky, let alone the idea of a new career path in later life.
Opportunities for women have undoubtedly opened up and there are more mature women than ever creating successful businesses. Yet women are still faced with sexism and ageism every moment of every day. My focus here is to appeal to women hitting their 50s and beyond. My ambition is to hear them and persuade them, and me, that experience and wisdom are gifts that should not go unshared in later life.
My name is Sarah, I am 58, and about to embark on another career that first involves undertaking a Masters degree in Nutritional Therapy & Longevity. Using social media (for the first time), I want to journal and share the experience.
I know I will face ageism, initially in my classroom. I also know that the worst critic will be myself as I peer into my computer screen and am confronted with my lined face in the fresh faced ‘Zoom’ classroom.
This makes me reflect that if we want change, we need to be that change. Valuing oneself is not easy unless nurtured very early in life. It is also quite a nebulous concept and hard to grasp until genuinely felt. It is not a permanent state that can be won by losing a couple of pounds or getting our hair done (women’s self-worth can be so tied to appearance and this gets ever harder the older we get). It is more of an ever-evolving accumulative state that allows us to develop a solid sense of self no matter our age or situation.
So please join me on this journey. I will combine observations on what it means to be an older woman/student in today’s world with discoveries in the nutrition, health and longevity fields. I will experiment with food groups and share recipes. And hopefully, along the way, persuade a few older ladies that our contribution to those around us and beyond is not just valuable but imperative.