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Women over the age of 40 in the first decade of the new millennium are educated, successful, and celebrated in the media as dynamic, energetic, and in control. Gone is the middle-aged woman hunched over from years of menial labor. Women are no longer portrayed as frumpy housewives whose lives are consumed by the sparkle of their dishes or the freshness of their linens.

Women are out of the house and into the office. Many have raised families and are now reentering the workforce. Many have been building careers and are now reaching pinnacles, becoming high-level executives and CEOs. Many are striking out on their own; nearly 50% of small businesses owned by woman are owned by women over 50 years old.(1) A woman over forty today is a woman in her prime.

Not only have they integrated into the business world, they are politically powerful. There are 89 women currently serving in the House and Senate. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will be 60 years old in October of 2007, is campaigning to win the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States. In 2006, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She is 67 years old, and the first women to hold that office.

Barbara Morgan, the teacher turned astronaut, is 55 years old and in August of 2007, she's in space, a crewmember of the Shuttle Endeavor. Meg Whitman, CEO of the online marketplace ebay, is 51 years old. The Editor in Chief of MORE magazine, Peggy Northrop, is 50 years old. The magazine is dedicated to women over 40.

To be a woman over 40 in the new millennium means opportunity to accomplish life goals, to achieve success, to affect social change and influence generations to come. There may be costs to such aspirations though: high levels of stress, escalating health issues coinciding with new ventures, a standard of expectations that exerts pressure on those disinterested in such later in life ventures. Such issues, though, are part and parcel of societal change, and should not negate the power achieved by women over 40.

1)http://www.dba.state.va.us/m wbusinesses/2003WIPP.pdf

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