By Catherine Marienau & Gail Zelitzky
Imagine learning, contributing, connecting, and renewing as ongoing practices throughout life—not practices defined by age. These qualities are illuminated by the podcast guests featured in our book, Women Over 70: Reimagining Aging, Place, and Possibilities. Their stories motivated us to expand Women Over 70-Aging Reimagined® from a podcast into a broader effort to challenge ageism. And they shaped our understanding of what this book needed to say.
Our book arrives at a moment when people are living longer—and rethinking how later life can be experienced. Our podcast guests offer compelling evidence that a different narrative of aging already exists. For more than seven years, through our podcast, symposia, Facebook group, and speaking engagements, we have been documenting their stories. As longevity makes living well into our 100s increasingly possible, their experiences offer a powerful glimpse of what aging can be.
Although our book is contemporary, it stands in a tradition begun more than fifty years ago by American activist Maggie Kuhn and the Gray Panthers. Kuhn called older people and women “America’s biggest untapped and undervalued human energy source.” Her motto, “leave no stone unturned,” challenged the assumption that growing older meant becoming invisible and unimportant. Today, meeting that challenge is more urgent than ever.
This book introduces readers to women who don’t merely talk about aging—they are actively shaping their lives and communities in later life. Their lived experiences answer this question: What possibilities emerge, and how can they flourish in later life? From their stories, we gleaned common qualities—the Six Cs of vital living.
Consider Gretchen, in her early 70s, whose chosen Community is living permanently as the only White woman among the Maroons in the mountains of Jamaica.
Ronne’s Curiosity about her mixed-race heritage became the subject of a family memoir she wrote in her 80s, following retirement.
For nearly 50 years, Audrey has drawn on Courage to challenge racism and sexism while opening opportunities for women and girls of color—breaking barriers as the first Black woman to lead major social organizations, including the YWCA and Girl Scouts, and, now in her early 80s, continuing to serve on boards focused on social justice.
In her 90s, Opal made significant Contributions to establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday; now approaching 100, she is honorary chair and major fundraiser for the future National Juneteenth Museum.
Creativity has led Sally, in her 70s, to delve into clowning, painting, and memoir writing.
And Compassion for turtles compels Susan, in her 80s, to lead diving excursions with older women to rid East Coast ponds of trash.
These women offer just a glimpse of the diverse experiences of aging we share in our book. Their stories illuminate possibilities that are too often overlooked when we think about women in later life. Like Maggie Kuhn, our women over 70 “leave no stone unturned.” Together, their stories expand our understanding of the vitality of later life.
We hope this book will encourage readers to rethink their own assumptions about what it means to grow older—and to see women not through the lens of decline, but as creators, contributors, and agents of their own lives. It is time to tell new stories about aging—ones that reflect the richness, complexity, and possibility of women’s lives at every age.
More about Catherine Marienau & Gail Zelitzky’s book published by LPP:
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