50 MILLION WOMEN ARE, NEVERTHELESS, DONE AND OVER WITH

Lately the media’s identified some other big numbers, all having to do with older women.

There’s Nancy Pelosi, who at 78 has proved the president’s most indomitable opponent, and her peers in the House: Maxine Waters, 80, the first woman to head the Financial Services Committee, and Donna Shalala, who turns 78 on Feb. 14, the oldest freshman in this year’s class. Glenn Close was 71 when she won a Golden Globe for best actress on Jan. 6, the same night that CBS News announced it was putting a 66-year-old woman, Susan Zirinsky, in charge of the company.

Psychologist Mary Pipher: “Contrary to the cultural scripts that say women are old and useless and in the way — diminished versions of their former selves — in reality older women are the happiest demographic in the country,” Pipher says. She cites research from the University of California, San Diego, along with census data from the United Kingdom, suggesting not only that people become happier as they age but that “the happiest people are women aged 65-79.”

There are roughly 50 million women 55+ in the U.S. While it is totally laudable that 4 are "cool" and many more are still active and vibrant, the reality for women 55+ is even harsher than the reality for men 55+. Ageism is the silent, last bias that we must fight.