by Glenda K. Fralin

Created on: April 12, 2009

The new millennium is a great time to be a woman over forty. It's an exciting time for any woman. But. as women over forty we have dodged more bullets and trials in the twentieth century than at any time previous. We have left behind the woman who is obligated to stay home and take care of the children and keep her place in the home, community and church. We blundered through suffrage until we were finally granted the vote. We struggled through years of anxiety to make a way in a man's world and even made it to the top. Now, it is a new millennium and a woman over forty is free to be any one or none of the above.

We are no longer obliged to be house maids. We can be a stay at home mother, homemaker, and even participate in community and church by our own choice.

We can choose to work part time and keep the remainder of the week for our own interests, whatever they may be. For me, I have six grandchildren, and a lot of writing to do. At least I've convinced myself that I am an up and coming author. I just haven't convinced the literary world of it yet.

A woman over forty has the power to speak in front of a mixed audience about their area of expertise and hold the respect, interest and admiration of the listeners. We are politically and socially active people. We are vibrant with colorful personality and youthful ideas.

Women of the new millennium have PhDs, Medical degrees, political science degrees and are CEOs in the business world. Many who ae still too young to know will ask how is this different than before. It is different because it is now common place. There is still a fight, but the struggle is not at all the same. We no longer have to deny our femininity to work with the big boys.

There was a long time when women who didn't marry were considered spinsters after a certain age. That was not considered a good thing, believe me. I had two aunts who did quite well having never married. They shared a home, had jobs, considered the numerous nieces and nephew, no matter how far removed to be enough family. These two wonderful women held the respect of their community and family and they were the exception. They were also a great example to all of the girls in our family. They were just as happy as their married sisters.

Oh, we are in a new age, a wonderful age for women of any decade of their life. I see my own daughters confident in themselves in a way that took me nearly fifty years. My oldest is approaching forty in a few years and I don't think it will dawn on her that there has been much change other than another day went by. She may have some kind of crisis, I don't know. But, when we see women like Sally Field, Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey, and even me no longer marching against the flow but are a part of it, a new attitude takes hold of your cultural and social circles.

I don't want to be a man, I don't want to wear a man's clothes, although I love blue jeans and T-shirts, I can speak with a more educated voice because I did go back to college after forty. I am me, not trying to be you or anyone else. The best part of being a woman over forty in the new millenium is we are who we are with no questions asked. Anyone who can't take it, well, let them keep questioning. They may find their own answers.

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