Speaking as a Postmenopausal Woman

Nuts to that, Vance

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-whats-wrong-with-j-d-vance/

You’ve got to hand it to JD Vance, Trump’s pick for VP. He summarizes the Republican attack on women very well.

‘Your worth is your reproductive body.’

Not only has he dismissed “childless cat ladies,” Vance agreed with a with a podcast host in 2020 that the “whole purpose of the postmenopausal female” is to help raise grandchildren.

“Females” is key. Not human beings, not even women, but “female,” like they’re discussing zoology.

Menopause is the time when women’s bodies cease menstruating, and their bodies undergo what is commonly called “the Change.” The production of two hormones, estrogen and progesterone, varies widely. You can get the well-known “hot flashes,” feel irritable and perhaps have some insomnia. That period is not a lot of fun, I have felt, but menstruation gradually ceases, and the body moves into a postmenopausal phase.

And that is when “The Change” can precipitate a lot of change.

As a postmenopausal female, I have experienced this period in my life as one of great creativity. I became the president of Chicago Theological Seminary, and then, after retirement, I have written seven books.

I actually observe this burst of creativity in other postmenopausal women of my acquaintance.

Forbes’ list of the “100 Most Powerful Women” highlights that 80% of them are over age 50 - and half are over 60. 

Of course, this list mostly hides a racist bias in society and the women highlighted appear to be white. Whiteness gives you a boost in life whether white women (or Forbes) recognize it as such.

That does not mean women of color do not achieve as much as white women in many areas of society despite the structural racism in the US. As sociologist Cheryl Townsend Gilkes frames it so well in If It Wasn’t for the Women, African American women were central in the formation of African American community, churches and as political agents. Of course they bring those skills into the workplace with remarkable skill and competence.

“Church mothers” had a central, though often unacknowledged role, in creating and sustaining the Civil Rights movement.

If Vice-President Kamala Harris is successfully elected to the presidency in this country, this culture and its power will be strongly in the forefront of that achievement. “Win With Black Women” has propelled a massive donor surge for her campaign. Harris’ identity as South Asian is also crucial in support for her and for donor turn out.

I love my grandchildren and have helped out with them certainly. But that family contribution is not my reason for being.

My reason for being is to love and be loved, to contribute as much as I can to the well-being of others, and not to let myself be defined by the narrow, prejudiced views of racist hetero-patriarchy about who women are and what they can do.

I have lived like that and I plan to continue to do so.