Menopause

In youth-oriented cultures, menopausal women may seem invisible or undesirable to the young. However, many women who enter this phase of their lives feel that menopause means freedom -- from responsibility for caring for children, from the necessity of dealing with the discomfort and hassle of menstruation.

Grandmothers enjoy the pleasures of loving their offspring's children and then sending them home after they play for awhile. In extended families, some of the best, most loving relationships are between grandparents and grandchildren.

While in some cultures women have been regarded as old crones once they passed their child-bearing years, in others, older women are respected as treasured elders -- they have status and are valued for their wisdom.

Where the wisdom of elder women is revered and sought-after, these women might be healers, visionaries, teachers or artists who've achieved mastery of their crafts.

In clans and tribes living close to the earth, the women and children needed protection as they tended to the food, clothing and domestic chores, as well as caring for the family. The older women were needed to teach the skills and the arts necessary for living.

Mother-in-law jokes stemmed from extended family situations in which the older women had great power over the brides of their sons.

Golden Girls was a successful U.S. television show that depicted a group of free-spirited older women. In the show, four women lived full rich lives, dating, living as roommates, expressing the same concerns as other women. The stars of the show were Bea Arthur, Betty White, Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan.

Covens, the name for groups of women who practice witchcraft, were communal situations, often in places where it was not safe for a woman to live alone. No wonder these groupings seemed so threatening and became the subject of attack and persecution -- they showed an alternative to male control of a society.

"It is sad to grow old but nice to ripen."
--Brigitte Bardot

By the time a woman had mastered the arts necessary to practice witchcraft, she was often at the stage of life where she didn't need a man to impregnate her. "Crone" did not necessarily have a negative connotation among women.

More on Women's Cycles:

Women's Cycles
Fertility
Pregnancy
Birth Control

Recommended Links for Older Women:

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