Women’s Web is pleased to share with its readers books written by women, for women, and about women. Women of the Silent Generation—those born between 1925 and 1944—may not be going silently into the night. In fact, they’re still doing it, still loving it, and getting better at it.
Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over Sixty
Women of the Silent Generation may not be going silently into the night.
According to the NIH National Institute on Aging US age pyramid, projections are that in 2030, there will be 33.75 million women but only 29.25 million men between the age of 65 and 84. In other words, older women will continue to experience the same “partner gap” as today in finding eligible men after divorce, death of a husband, or having never been married.
Despite the imbalance, we might learn from the experiences of some women of the Silent Generation—those born between 1925 and 1944—who have decided to explore new ways of living, showing us that despite those prevailing stereotypes of the elderly with bath chairs and canes, the golden years are for many just that: golden.
Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women over Sixty
(Avery, October 2008) celebrates the lives of some of the daring, outspoken and sensual women of the Silent Generation who are actively embracing new challenges, new careers, and new types of romantic relationships and sexual experiences. Based on extensive interviews and research by authors Deirdre Fishel and Diana Holtzberg, producers of the award-winning documentary film of the same name, the book explores the lives and loves of an incredible group of women in their 60s, 70s and older—women who are confident and wise and willing to take on risks—and relationships—they may never have imagined, whether with much younger men, multiple partners, or other women.
Among those we meet are
- Harret Somers Zerling, age 80, a bohemian and artist with a penchant for younger men. Though mostly straight, she was also the one-time lover of Susan Sontag.
- Lainie Cook, 66, a beauty sings the blues at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
- Elaine Isom, 81, a funny and high-spirited African-American woman and great-grandmother who still feels sexual, despite two bouts with cancer.
- Shelley Leinhardt, 66, an intensely fit and gorgeous woman who left her husband in her fifties to join the rocky world of singledom. She recently returned from doing humanitarian work in Africa.
- Marnie Hensel, 76, a champion skier into her seventies before switching gears to earn her Masters in health coaching. She’s jumped out of a plane and has 6 grandchildren and a new boyfriend 15 years her junior.
As women continue to live longer and healthier lives, their appetite for sex is slow to fade and for many, sex is an essential part of their well-being. The women in this book have raised kids, been in long-term relationships, lost spouses, been divorced, come out of the closet, and even found love in the nursing home, but they are all living life on their own terms.Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women over Sixty
takes on myths and misconceptions and provides the tools and inspiration for women of all ages—partnered, single, straight or gay—to reinvent themselves, enjoy their bodies and take risks at all stages in life. Stimulating and eye-opening, this book shows that older women are still doing it, still loving it, and still getting better at it.
