Older Women Face Workplace Problems

 

If you’re an older woman who’s trying to hold onto a job or looking for a new one, you may face some harsh realities.

 

Older Women Are Being Forced Out of the Workforce by Lauren Stiller Rikleen in Harvard Business Review:

“For the past five years, I have traveled across the U.S., speaking and conducting research on women’s leadership and advancement and bias in the workplace. Hundreds of women in their 50s and 60s have shared their stories of demotions, job losses, and the inability to find another job—outcomes they attribute primarily to their age and gender.  These women often have long histories of career success, but they have seen their responsibilities assigned to younger workers, their compensation lowered for inexplicable reasons, and their career mobility impaired by a workplace that seems to value youth over experience.”

Older Women Are Invisible in the Workplace by Suzanne Moore in The Guardian:

“. . . [W]e are going to have a generation of women retiring into poverty or being made redundant but unable to find more work. Increased life expectancy means increased life expectations – not just a plunge into scraping by. Of course, assertions of the invisibility of older women in positions of power are countered by the exceptions that prove the rule. ‘Look!’ everyone says about Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Christine Lagarde. This is of no help to me whatsoever unless I can retrain as leader of a country I don’t live in. Is there an evening class for that?”

Are you still working, or trying to work? Have you experienced age discrimination? Let us know in the comments!

 

Posted in Working | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Experience Talks 4/3: Dr. Joseph Bobrow, Roshi

Experience_Talks_logo_FB-WE

01 - KPFK ListenLiveButtonTune in to Experience Talks, our weekly “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener,” on Sundays at 5:00 PM PT on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online, and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! Experience Talks is produced by the non-profit EngAGE, Inc.

 

PODCASTMiss the show? You can always hear it as a podcast on the Listen Page of our website! You’ll also find an archive-in-progress of all of our previous shows there for you to enjoy. New shows are usually posted within 48 hours after broadcast.

 


SUNDAY, 3/27 @ 5 PM PT
DR. JOSEPH BOBROW, ROSHI
with host
DR. CONNIE CORLEY


Joseph BobrowDR. JOSEPH BOBROW, ROSHI, is the author of Waking Up From War: A Better Way Home For Veterans and Nations, with a foreword by H.H. The Dalai Lama. He is also the founder of Coming Home Project, a non-profit organization of psychotherapists, veterans, and interfaith leaders whose programs help Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, service members, and their families and caregivers alleviate the emotional, social and family, and moral injuries of war. Joseph is a psychologist-psychoanalyst and the Zen master of Deep Streams Institute which offers Zen Buddhist practice; develops new integrative models of healing; and implements these models as it serves the community through the non-denominational Coming Home Project. Joseph’s critically acclaimed book, Zen and Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation, and his other writings explore psychotherapy, Buddhism, and the interplay of community-based, psychologically, and spiritually informed approaches to transforming trauma — individually, relationally, and culturally. He teaches throughout the United States and abroad.

 

Posted in Experience Talks | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Helene Weinberg Is Creative Programs Director at PacArts

EngAGE is delighted to announce that Helene Weinberg is the Creative Programs Director at Pacific Avenue Arts Colony in San Pedro, CA! Please join us to celebrate.First Thursday meet Helene

 

 

Posted in Community News, Pac Arts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Connecting with Others When You’re Homebound

TechnologyTwo great advantages of living in an EngAGE Community are (1) you and your neighbors share an interest in creativity, and (2) you have the opportunity to participate in stimulating classes and special events right there on site. But what can you do if you’re homebound and don’t have easy access — or access at all — to like-minded people or the kind of creative classes and events that you want and need?

Fortunately, if you have a computer, there are many options for online learning. One particularly effective program that also includes a way of connecting personally is presented in this post from Next Avenue written by Beth Baker (a former guest on Experience Talks):

The Online Classes That Help the Homebound Connect

“Rose Binder, 93, of Queens, N.Y., is homebound. . . .But thanks to something called a Virtual Senior Center, operated by the nonprofit Selfhelp Community Services, Binder’s time is filled with intellectual and cultural riches. Moreover, she has the chance to make friends and to regularly chat with them face-to-face — all from the comfort of her home.”

Selfhelp’s philosophy is that older people need to stay connected to the wider world: “To that end, utilizing our technologies, we work with schools, museums, churches and synagogues and bring all those activities and age groups, to our seniors, if they cannot get there any other way.”

How do you find people that share your interests?

How do you find creative classes and events?

We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

[Hat tip to Ann Davis Garvin for the link.]

 

Posted in Learning, Technology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Aroha Philanthropies: Artful Aging

Aroha Philanthropies

We’d like to call your attention to a wonderful new website from our partners, Aroha Philanthropies:

ARTFUL AGING 

On it you’ll find resources — books, articles, research, documentaries, feature films, and more — to further develop the Artful Aging community.

You’ll also find news and events, including Jane Brody’s recent column in the NY Times highlighting EngAGE Senior Arts Colonies.

And there are lists of service organizations supporting the field of Artful Aging as well as a exemplary Artful Aging programs around the United States, including EngAGE and our radio show, Experience Talks.

Bookmark it to follow what’s going on in the world of Artful Aging!

 

Posted in FYI | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Are You Registered to Vote?

FYIYou can check your voter registration status on the California Secretary of State’s website.

Is it difficult for you to get to the polls to vote? You can get a one-time or a permanent vote-by-mail application here.

There are many issues that are important to older people that will be affected by the results of the elections, so it’s important to make sure your voice in government is heard! Vote!

 

 

Posted in FYI | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Worth Repeating: Beautiful Minds: Dwan Smith-Fortier

WORTH-REPEATING

“Worth Repeating” is a weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 3/31/15:


Dwan Smith-FortierCongratulations to Burbank Senior Artists Colony resident Dwan Smith-Fortier for being featured by the National Center for Creative Aging in their “Beautiful Minds” series! Here’s their post:

Dwan Smith-Fortier, 70, has always felt the most comfortable being in front of an audience. Even as a small child, so small she had to stand on a box, she delivered Christmas recitations in church with a power and a voice beyond her years.

She began acting after transferring to California as an employee for IBM. While in California she auditioned for small plays and commercials landing many roles. After getting signed by major agents she starred in the movie Sparkle, General Hospital, and many other productions.

Dwan went on to act for over 30 more years before her life was changed in 2004 when her husband suffered a massive stroke. She became her husband’s caregiver while he recovered for the next six years.

In healing her husband, Dwan feared that she was losing her voice and sense of direction. Despite that fear, she remained optimistic crediting her art for helping her to see her husband’s path and to be honest with her emotions. She found her voice again while writing for her one woman show, Junk from my Trunk…a Caregiver Story, opening early this summer.

A Burbank Senior Artist Colony resident, an art inspired independent living community, Dwan had no idea she was a “senior”, as she says, “There is a difference between aging and getting old and I ain’t gon’ never get old!”

At the artist colony she is inspired by others with young spirits like hers. She is learning that “the age associated with your being has nothing to do with the clock in your spirit and mind”. There Dwan also directs local plays and is working on several scripts.

For others who are hoping to live a long and productive life, Dwan says, “Create a legacy by constantly creating something, leaving things better that they were before you. Release any bitterness or anxieties you may have. Treasure every minute.”

She also credits exercise and eating right for her youthful lifestyle. “I want to look good every time I walk out. I love being glamourous. I still wear my heels!”

[Learn more about the National Center for Creative Aging, an organization “dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging, and to developing programs that build upon this understanding.”]

Posted in Worth Repeating | Tagged , | Leave a comment