Lifestyle | Women's Voices For Change

Hair Change; The Power of Reinvention

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

How it became respectable for ordinary women to turn themselves blonde (or strive to look younger) at any age, in many cases boosting their self-esteem, love lives, and, most important, their employment prospects.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: I Have No Parents

By Molly Fisk

This year, I feel as though winter isn’t just one in a comforting circle of seasons, to be followed by spring and then summer again. I’m getting the creepy feeling that my life is heading into its winter, and in the metaphor of a life, you only get one round.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: Let Me Call You Sweetheart

By Molly Fisk

Have you ever said “no” when someone asked for a hug? It's not that easy. Our culture pressures us in so many ways to go along and not rock the boat.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: Oregon Creek

By Molly Fisk

A small creek joins the river here and a rope swing hangs over the bank. I sat listening to the sound for a while, and then wrote a poem about it, mentioning God, which is strange, since I'm a lapsed Unitarian and don't believe in God.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: My Own Special Kind of Hysterics

By Molly Fisk

It opens that creaking door to old age and death. First a tooth, then pretty soon I won’t be able to drive at night or walk into town on my own two feet.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: Counter-tops

By Molly Fisk

I’m going to remind myself why we’re having the party in the first place: to appreciate all the women who work for a non-profit where I volunteer. It’s about love and gratitude. Two of the very, very few things worth cleaning the counter-tops for.

Lifestyle

Avoiding Capitalism 101

By Molly Fisk

Every now and then, as a person might need to binge on horrible junk food like Twinkies or Velveeta, my mind craves a break from the real world. . .Every now and then, I sit around the house like a sloth and read mail-order catalogs.

Money & Careers

Last Chance, Harvey? Sex and Power in the Workplace

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

The “Weinstein Affair” is less about sex than it is about power. He already had a beautiful wife, and could no doubt have had sex with many others. But when a man has the power to make or break someone’s career, can sex truly be consensual, as he claimed it was?

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: That We Are Helpless

By Molly Fisk

How do I talk about fire when it's this bad and there are so many, some with lines holding them back and some uncontained, roaring through neighborhoods and wineries, schoolyards, even Trader Joe's?

Money & Careers

Rainy Days and Layoffs—This Too Shall Pass

By Phyllis Cohen

Faith and fear over your job search cannot occupy the same space. Since the day has only 24 hours, don’t waste this valuable real estate.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: Young Men

By Molly Fisk

I have some other young men in my life: a poetry student with whom I drink coffee, a godson, my ex-boyfriend's nephews. It's really fun to talk to them, they're so jazzed about life.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: Be Joyful Though You Have Considered All the Facts

By Molly Fisk

“I wonder if I'll ever lose any weight?” Then I think, “Who knows?!?” and look at the clouds again. There's no point in ruining a beautiful cool relaxing invigorating refreshing and fabulous swim by thinking about your weight.

Lifestyle

Molly Fisk: Boomer Childlessness

By Molly Fisk

Now that I'm in my 60s, there's talk about what will happen to Baby Boomers with no families to take care of them at the end of life. This is a bit crazy-making, reinforcing the cultural myth that we should have had children in the first place.