The New Ourselves, Growing Older: Women Aging with Knowledge and Power

In 1971 the Boston Women's Health Collective published its first book, Our Bodies, Ourselves , and thus the field of feminist health care was born. Ourselves, Growing Older began as one chapter of that original work; the Collective published the first edition in 1987. The authors here explain the book's evolution: ``Most of us in the Collective were in our twenties and thirties when we first met--now we are heading into the second half of life . . . we fought the medicalization of childbirth; now we move to questioning the medicalization of menopause. We challenge the notion that disability comes inevitably with aging.'' Clearly what hasn't changed for the Collective since 1971 is the recognition that there is an unbreakable connection between the personal and the political when it comes to health care. For a woman, taking control of one's life and one's body is the most basic feminist principle around, and this book encourages readers to move in that direction, breaking down a formidable barrier of the mind--the fear of growing old. The information given is tailored to the needs and questions of baby-boomers as they enter the second half of life, addressing everything from the lack of clinical studies on aging using women as subjects, to becoming a mother-in-law, to HIV and safe sex. Pages are also devoted to managing finances and current proposals for a U.S. national health care system. Health is a political issue, and good aging means staying healthy--and involved. This is a self-help book with a conscience. (May)