Thanks for the Clarification, Justice Stevens

All these months I’ve been whining and complaining about dealing with turning 50, and whether or not it means I have crossed some invisible border into the “golden years.” I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about the “midlife crisis” as experienced by women, trying to decide if that is what I am dealing with. I’ve been alternately amused and insulted by the adjectives used to describe people my age – descriptions ranging from “older” to “senior” to “elderly.”

Now, thanks to a ruling by the Supreme Court, I no longer need to debate over whether or not I am “mature” or “old.” Apparently, I am now so old; the Supreme Court has judged that I have needed age discrimination protection for the past ten years.

And age discrimination is a real issue; just ask any 16 year male driver who needs to obtain car insurance. Ask anyone who is on the job hunt and is being tossed between having “not enough experience” and being “overqualified” — euphemisms for you are either too young or too old. Ask any Hollywood actress, especially one who has the audacity to date younger men.

The Supreme Court Justices, who themselves may really define “older worker,” by setting the bar at age 40, they have now dumped “about 75 million people — roughly half the nation’s workforce” into the “older worker” category. Apparently, those of us aged 40 and over need to be legally protected from employer policies that negatively impact us because of our age. The ruling was based in part, on a case from Mississippi, where police department raises were unfairly distributed to the benefit of the younger officers. So, the ruling will right a wrong and make it easier to bring an age discrimination case against an employer.

What strikes me as odd is why any employer would do anything to place half of its workforce at a disadvantage. Surely, the heads of corporate America are fast approaching, if not passing, middle age. Do they all have the Enron-inspired managerial mantra of getting whatever they can for themselves and the heck with everyone else? What does it say about us, as a society when half our workforce needs to be on guard?

I think we need to start a new lobbying group, one that will address the needs of those of us now declared Legally Old People. And apparently, by the sheer virtue of our numbers, we LOPs could become a force to be reckoned with.

That is, if we admit our age.

Eight Days and Counting

Eight days left. It is interesting how this birthday, physically, is the same as every other birthday, and yet, emotionally and socially, it stands alone. People tell me “it’s just a number,” and yet, like it or not, it does represent a significant, if artificial, milestone in our society.
I have found it amazing, the way that some news sources, article writers and even health professionals refer to people who have reached 50. I have seen references that include those aged 50 and above in the classifications of “older workers” and “seniors.” One 52 year old woman was even described as “elderly” in a news story about how she rescued a young boy from an attacking dog. Elderly?
It even seems that, at 50, I may be too old claim having a “midlife crisis,” as this seems to be something women are describing in greater numbers starting at age 40. The most shocking thing to me is how, suddenly, 50 years seem to have quickly compressed behind me – with whole decades of my life barely making an indent on my gray matter. Combine that with the relatively short expanse of time I see in front of me – let’s face it, I have most likely already passed the lifetime halfway point. Considering all the things I thought I had time left to do, it is enough to create panic. And a good deal of sadness and mourning for those things that will never be. How anyone can reach this point in life without at least giving a passing thought to mortality, accomplishment and legacy is a mystery to me. How I can not obsess over it in the next 8 days – and maybe longer – is also a mystery to me.

To Be Insured … Or Not to Be

I don’t have any statistics on it, but if the amount of solicitations I receive is any indication, the insurance business is hot. I’m not talking about car insurance, which is, in itself, an unending drain on the finances of any New Jersey driver, but, rather, the piles of solicitations that come with any sort of credit line. Get a credit card, and you will be inundated with Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance. Belong to any organization, and there will be mailings in your name about Term Life Insurance. There is even insurance to pay for what other insurance doesn’t. With so many companies involved with this, and so many variations available, I’m convinced that somewhere, someone at the top of this Insure Everything pyramid is taking home money by the truckload.

Recently, I found myself suddenly thinking that one of these offers actually sounded like a good idea. I was refinancing some incredibly high debt and was offered a plan that would pay the loan if I became either temporarily or permanently disabled. With almost a half century of mortality bearing down on me, I thought, this sounds good. So I signed for it. Premiums were added to my monthly loan payments. I thought that was the end of it.

Now, two months later, I get a letter from the company providing the insurance, responding to the fact that I had truthfully listed some health conditions I have on the application form. Not only were they asking for essays from me on how these conditions affect me and what treatments I use, but they also wanted a list of every doctor visit and/or hospitalization I have had, with complete explains of why, FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS. I’ve heard of life insurance companies demanding physicals and the like before they insure a person’s life, but never have I heard of this kind of detailed request for insuring someone’s debt. It seems excessive and invasive.

Maybe its standard practice and part of the routine of reaching the 5-0 milestone. Well, I’m not having any part of it. Recent privacy laws about medical records were enacted for a reason. Not being able to go to my doctors, the insurance company now wants ME to go to my doctors and get my records. No where in their letter do they make any assurances about my privacy or how this information will be used or stored. If I don’t respond, the insurance will be revoked. It just makes me feel creepy, the same feeling I get when I sit at my computer in the office and know that someone else has been using it in my absence without telling me. I don’t know what they have been doing, or why, and it takes quite a while for the feeling of invasion to go away.

It’s bad enough that every credit-granting entity in the world has access to my financial records. They aren’t getting my medical records. They can keep their insurance.

A Change in Plans

Currently, I am reading “The Breaking Point – How Female Midlife Crisis is Transforming Today’s Women” by Sue Shellenbarger. It is really opening my eyes to the fact that this dealing-with-turning-50 thing really is something that many women contend with. In fact, the studies show that more women than men are reporting this phenomenon, and the age range varies from early 40s to late 50s.
I offer this as a sort of excuse for the fact that I have cancelled my spa trip because I went out last Saturday and bought a new car. A zippy, metallic blue, 5-speed compact that even my 19-year old son has declared as “cool.”
I think I’ll still get a massage on my birthday, if I can get out of the car long enough.

Real Genetic Research

At last, the rhetoric seems to be calming, and the real scientific research about the differences between male and female genetics is beginning to surface. As my daughter Rosemarie previously stated here, the Human Genome Project has virtually turned previous work on its scientific ear. Maureen Dowd addresses these latest findings in her March 20 column, Op-Ed Columnist: X-celling Over Men . It appears that recent research is finding out how different women's genes really are - in fact, it seems that, while men's genetics are pretty stable and predictable, there are vastly more variables in a woman's genetic material. Which, I think, would make it even harder to make generalized statements about women's genetic aptitudes. Following this research, which is truly in its infancy, will be truly exciting.

It's An Epidemic!

Just when I thought it was safe to get back to whining and complaining about my personal life, I found out there is yet another gender battleground forming, this time about the under-representation of women in OP-ED writing. Not that this comes as any surprise. The glass ceilings that were crushing us back in the 70s when I first entered the work world have not shattered in the interim. They may have been nudged up a bit by the sheer force of the weight of the women smashing up against them, but they are still there. However, I've tried to believe that in profession of writing we had come a long way since the days when women wrote under male pen names in order to be taken seriously. Now I read, in articles by Maureen Dowd (Op-Ed Columnist: Dish It Out, Ladies) and Elizabeth Spiers (Adventures in Opinion Writing: No Easy Answers) that women are just not getting the newspaper ink that men get when it comes to OP-ED columns. Some say, women may just not be interested in writing tough, topical, controversial columns. Well, I'm raising my hand. Attention Editors: if your newspaper OP-ED section looks like the smoking lounge in an all-male club, call me. I'm available. And that offer also extends to those of you looking for a humorist now that Dave Barry has gone into repeats. I'm flexible.

Getting this Blog Back to What's Important

Today, lets all meditate on what is really important in this blog... There are 19 days left until the big 5-0.

The Vote is In at Harvard

While some are still saying this is about his “freedom of speech” being taken away, it is really about the head of a prestigious educational institution using his position to promote his personal opinion, rather than an academically and scientifically supported hypothesis. The fact that it appears that women have not been well supported by his administration (tenure for women has decreased since he took the position) it now seems to me that he was looking for a reason to justify his actions.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/03/15/harvard.summers.ap/index.html

My Daughter Responds

My oldest daugther Rosemarie, who just happened to have achieved a perfect score on her calculus placement exam, and is currently working toward her PsyD - has been following this blog and all the assorted comments relating to the remarks by the President of Harvard. After doing some reading on her own, she writes to me with these interesting observations:

In this month's Monitor on Psychology published by the American Psychological Association, there is an article about studying genetic differences. Although it is about race, it also talks about tools and research studying genetic differences. A quote:

"New and sophisticated methods for studying the relationship between human genetic differences, the environment, health and behavior, all made possible by the completion of the Human Genome Project, have made traditional race-based measurements of human differences" [I would add any biologically-based measure, including gender] "obsolete."-Thus, even if Mr. Summers was quoting actual reasearch, unless it was completed since the completion of the Human Genome Project, the methods used to measure gender aptitude differences are obsolete. Since all humans are shaped and influenced by the environment from the moment they are born, it is necessary to discover specific genetic differences to support the assertion that women are biologically inferior in mathematical and scientific abilities. Even if these genetic differences are discovered, it has been well-documented in the research literature that genes can be altered by the environment, both pre- and post-natally. At this time, I am not aware of any such research that exists that supports biological differences and shows specific genetic differences between the genders in math and science abilities. Thus, it appears that Mr. Summers' remarks were not only unfounded but based on obsolete research.

Just thought I'd add to the conversation.

Rosemarie

Only 25 days

It is only 25 days until you-know-what. I am starting to become afraid that I will wake up that morning to find myself turned into some kind of feminist-careerist-crazy-old-lady- AARP member, running out of my house with a broom, a briefcase, and pharmaceutical cornucopia ... If you see me, please catch me and make sure that I am at least not wearing my pajamas.

Why Do Debates Get Reduced to Name-Calling?

First it was Rush Limbaugh and his "femi-nazis," and now I see Stuart Taylor Jr. refers to "feminist careerists" in an Atlantic Monthly article. Without even trying to figure out just what those terms mean, I am reminded of what I used to tell my children when they were young. Anyone who must reduce an argument to name-calling and labeling is both language and idea bankrupt. I guess some people never grow out of it.

Mary Jo Egbert's Editorial

Many thanks to Barbara Fox, Senior Editor at US1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey for providing a link to Mary Jo Egbert's Editorial. Click on the title above to read it, or go to http://www.princetoninfo.com/200503/50309c03.html

At (almost) 50, I Can be Excused For Repeating Myself

At the risk of appearing to be obsessed with this subject, I must make one more entry about the now infamous remarks by the President of Harvard.

In stark contrast to Kathleen Parker's sarcastic editorial in The Orlando Sentinel supporting Summers, the editorial by chemist Mary Jo Egbert that appears in the March 9 edition of U.S. 1, clearly, concisely, and without a hint of Ms. Parker's sarcasm and emotionalism, debunks Summers' remarks.

Debunk is a mild word, as she points out that Summers and all his colleagues at the conference were well aware (or should have been aware) of the results of a 15 year study published in the March 2004 issue of Journal of Chemical Science. Titled "Achieving Gender Equity in Chemistry," it revealed two "clear reasons" for the lack of advancement of women in chemistry.

The first was the embedded practice of male mentors consistently supporting, promoting and hiring male scientists. The other was the fact that women in science often leave their career early because of the complicated combination of "family demands, unequal pay, discrimination and conditions of stagnated promotion" that the study authors described as "a climate that is chilling and isolating."

I don't see anything in those results that points to some kind of female genetic inaptitude. Now, I can possibly excuse journalists and reporters for not knowing about this study and its results, but not the President of Harvard. In light of this knowledge that was published months before his remarks, I can only conclude that he is either really out of touch with his profession, or deliberately ignored this research in favor of spewing his personal opinion.

If Ms. Egbert's piece becomes available online, I will post a link here. Meanwhile, those of you in the Princeton area of New Jersey, you can pick up the issue locally.

My Extremely Indulgent Birthday Gift to Myself

The reservations have been made. I have taken a room in a resort/spa near Atlantic City, New Jersey for 4 days, 3 nights, beginning on the day I will actually turn 50. I've never done anything so self-indulgent before - the resort has a spa offering massages, wraps and all sorts of mysterious pampering that I don't even know the names for. I've heard that the place is awash with women in pink robes and towel-covered heads. I just can't imagine actually spending a day - or two! - doing nothing but fussing over myself. BUT- I look forward to it!