But, after patting ourselves on the back, we need to recognize there were some pretty amazing women who led the charge decades before we were born. The last weeks of August mark the anniversary of their greatest and most triumphant accomplishment—Women’s Suffrage.

Every grammar school student knows our country was founded on the assurance of freedom and the pursuit of happiness for every citizen. Well—to be more specific—every white, male citizen! As foundational and inalienable as these rights were, such triumphs of democracy were reserved for men and men alone. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as a number of countries in the newly industrialized world were moving toward a more democratic means of government, women were consistently, deliberately, and without remorse or doubt, denied their human rights. Male leaders, themselves freely elected by their peers, barred women from governing bodies and legally denied them their right to vote. In fact, the United States had celebrated its 144^th birthday before its female citizens could cast a single ballot of their own.

The brave, spirited, and tenacious suffragettes fought valiantly to achieve this long overdue right. They bore verbal abuse, physical attack, starvation, and imprisonment in service to their cause. And, thanks to their amazing efforts, the Nineteenth Amendment granting voting rights to women was finally passed in June of 1918. However, for the amendment to become law, a minimum of thirty-six states was required to ratify it. Tennessee became the final state to do so on August 26, 1920.

Legislator Henry Burn, then twenty-four, cast the deciding vote.  He had not intended to vote for the amendment but had received a note the previous evening from his mother. She told him in no uncertain terms to “vote for suffrage.” As a respectful son, he complied and explained: “I changed my vote in favor of ratification because a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow.”

So happy 90^th birthday Nineteenth Amendment! And many happy returns of the day! As Hillary Clinton said while running for President, “My mother was born before women had the right to vote, but my daughter was able to vote for her own mother for President.” Quite an accomplishment for ninety years, I gotta say! And one huge, albeit belated: “Thank you, Mrs. Burn—you deed indeed raise one fine son!”

Yet, now that we’re past fifty, friendship and a sense of community with likeminded women holds even greater meaning. Aging can bring with it a shrinking world: we may no longer be working and feel the loss of day-to-day communication; we might live on the opposite side of the country from our dearest family members and mourn the physical closeness we yearn for; and we may lack the social resources that once gave our lives richness and depth.

Viola! Enter The Transition Network. This nationwide organization was founded to fill the void that many of us feel as we move beyond our initial careers and seek to find fulfillment elsewhere. Their Mission is to provide “a community for women over 50, who join forces as they navigate the transition from one career to another—or whatever is next.”

And, true to the boomer trailblazing spirit, The Transition Network defines itself as a “movement”—a national movement of engaged and energetic women of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds who together will:

• DISCOVER new perspectives and opportunities
• IMPACT their lives and their communities
• ADVOCATE with a collective and powerful voice

Talk about a feisty spirit! I’ve recently become a member of TTN and look forward to interacting with women my own age who understand the issues and concerns I’m facing at this time in my life. And, making things even more exciting, I just had the pleasure of interviewing the inspiring speaker and “encore career role model,” Betsy Werley, who also happens to be the Executive Director of The Transition Network.

I invite you to spend the brief fifteen minutes to listen to what Betsy has to say. You’ll come away from the experience with a renewed sense of purpose and confidence in all you can accomplish during this rich and fertile time in your life.

Also, be certain to check out the website for The Transition Network. With a few new friends on your side, a bit of information and support, and the inherent power found within a group of menopausal women on a mission, you’ll be feeling feisty for sure!

Special Event: I’m joining forces with the National Association of Baby Boomer Women to present a special Teleseminar, How to Land the Job You Love on Thursday, Aug. 12th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. If you or a boomer friend are looking for work, please sign up and attend. There is absolutely no charge and we’ll be covering the critical tools and techniques that will jumpstart your search and help you maximize your opportunities in today’s competitive market. The last 10 minutes will be open for Q & A–so think of the special answers you need to know and plan on attending. Sign up here!

Now, she’s taking her work one step further and has gathered together several of the nation’s top experts in the health and wellness field to present a one-of-a-kind teleseries. The programs, although varied, are each packed with information that will have you feeling and looking great in no time. And, the series is FREE!

The topics Greg’s experts will cover run the gamut from bone and heart health, to finding and sustaining inner peace, to that all-too-common bugaboo at midlife: taming the muffin top and halting the hips from unrestrained expansion.

At 3:00 p.m. ET on nearly every weekday in September, you’ll be treated to the best, most cutting-edge information the industry has to offer—and it’s all focused on the needs of us gals on the far side of fifty. In fact, Greg’s named her broadcasts the “Midlife Women’s Mind and Body Experts Teleseries.”

Moreover, these folks truly know whereof they speak. Greg has gathered together an amazing group of well-known specialists including nutrition experts, master teachers, life coaches, authors and more.

Take a look at the website. There’s a WIIFY (what’s in it for me?) page, a “Meet the Experts” page, a Series Schedule, and a FAQs page. Greg’s laid it all out so you can make the most of the information her panel will share. Also, if you have a conflict and need to miss a call, you can listen to the session for up to 48 hours after airing. Better yet, you can upgrade to VIP status, get recordings of all the calls, and an added super plus: additional phone time with Greg. This will ensure you can implement all the wonderful tools and tips you’ll learn and truly transform your health and wellbeing.

So give yourself a very special gift that will keep on giving and sign up. As Greg puts it, this series will “fire you up and give you the goods to rock the second half of your life!”

But there’s a fresh (um, actually mature) role model on the scene and she’s showing us an even greater lesson: 80 is now the new eighty. Maybe it’s her dimples or perhaps it’s the ever-present twinkle in her eye, but Betty White has become the pin-up girl for the Wrinkled Revolution. And, speaking of fresh, this gal has got some mouth on her! Did you catch her Saturday Night Live appearance?

Although her life has not always been easy (she lost her beloved husband, Alan Ludden, back in 1981 and never remarried), Betty White is showing us the art of aging without losing the spark and sparkle of youth. Her mind remains cuttingly clever and she’s not afraid of delivering a bawdy retort when interviewers give her any opening to inject that famous sense of humor. This lady is still taking risks, still making waves, and still enjoying life to the fullest. In fact, in just a couple of years, Betty will be showing us how to be a cheeky old broad at ninety!

So here’s to the woman who’s provided us countless laughs and many great moments for more than half a century: may her star continue to shine as she shows us the way to the Feisty Side of 100. If anyone can make her centenarian years sexy and fun, it’s gotta be Betty!

Now we’re facing a similar dilemma. Many of the so-called experts are touting the miraculous properties of bio-identical hormones. Are these hormones safe? Are they the “natural way” to health and wellbeing after the change? Are they for YOU?

As is the case with so many of the supplements, food additives, and medicines we take, there are a ton of differing opinions on the matter. Thankfully, Staness Jonekos and Dr. Wendy Klein have joined forces to write the definitive book on menopause entitled: The Menopause Makeover: The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of Your Health and Beauty During Menopause.

Their areas of expertise meshed perfectly to write the book because Staness is an award-winning television writer, producer and director who helped to launch Oprah Winfrey’s television network, Oxygen Media. She also co-executive produced the inaugural season of Celebrity Fit Club. But, most of all, she had her own significant struggles with the change of life and chronicles her journey from feeling overweight, down, and desperate to feeling better than ever before. Dr. Klein is a national leader in women’s health and an Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

Please give yourself the gift of listening to our broadcast on Blog Talk Radio. I promise you’ll learn the truth behind hormones, what the science is showing to be the best way to take them, and the lifestyle changes you can make that will have you feeling fabulous in no time!

Also, be sure and check out the Menopause Makeover. It’s packed with all the information you’ll need to make the right decisions for yourself. And, there’s a step-by-step action plan so you can’t lose! (Actually, you will lose—things like unwanted weight, mood swings, hot flashes and lots of other less than fun aspects of the change!)

You can find out more about the book and the amazing results of the Menopause Makeover by checking out their website. After all, it’s tough to feel feisty when you’re feeling dumpy, grumpy, itchy, and hot—so get going—the Menopause Makeover will have you fit and feisty in just 12 weeks!

I had the great pleasure of connecting with just such women earlier this week: Tomatoes in the Trenches. They’re a bicoastal group who’ve joined forces to present a “lively gabfest for smart women over 40” on Blog Talk Radio. Each Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and 10:00 a.m. Pacific, they interview fascinating women—from celebrities like Shelly Fabares to experts on film, food, design, and more.

The East Coast contingent is composed of three lively ladies from New York who grew weary of being overlooked by marketers choosing to lavish their attention on the size zero, barely post-pubescent set. Being trailblazing baby boomers and unwilling to be sidelined, they’d had enough of the invisibility factor. So these midlife tomatoes decided to create their own newsletter where they provide the real skinny on the best of everything in NYC. And they have standards! Whatever they promote has to pass muster at the “Three Tomato” review panel.

The West Coast is represented by an amazing group of women I’ve written about several times on Feisty Side of Fifty. In the Trenches Productions was launched by four actresses who’d had enough of the ageist, sexist attitude of Hollywood. So, like their East Coast counterparts, they decided to take the bull by the horns and do something about the “ignored audience” on their own. Using the hormonal chutzpah menopause gifts us, they went about creating the first entertainment network for women over 40 on the web. Their productions are geared right at our interests, our issues, and us, and you’ll find humor and insight in each and every one of their fabulous films.

I was both fortunate and honored to be interviewed by Tomatoes in the Trenches about the best methods for landing a job when you’re fifty and over. It’s tough out there these days, but if you know the latest and most effective techniques to successfully compete in today’s job market, you’re halfway there. And there are huge benefits to being an older applicant—you just need to learn the tips and tools for turning your age into an advantage. So please give their show a listen and check out what you can do to distinguish yourself from the crowd of jobseekers and move your search forward quickly and on target.

And most especially, as baby boomer women who are all tomatoes in the trenches, let’s look out for one another and call a halt to the invisibility factor once and for all!

We boomers are indeed fortunate because, as Suzanne writes, for our mothers and grandmothers, the “change of life” meant their lives stopped changing. As their nests emptied so did much of their focus and purpose. Without careers and with limited options and outlets, many of them became ladies who lunch, played tennis or bridge, or waited anxiously to become grandmothers. Maintaining home and hearth remained their primary responsibility and, with fewer mouths to feed, their job description became marginalized.

Ours, however, is a different generation. The women’s movement, the trailblazing spirit of the baby boomers, and the current economic realities have combined to keep us actively engaged in life way past our half-century birthdays. Traditional retirement is a thing of the past as the “forever-young” mindset of the boomers drives us to continue to contribute, interact, and break social barriers.

With our passion and energy still intact, the popular phrase for women our age has become “fifty is the new thirty.” But Suzanne buckles at that one! As she wrote: “That is not it at all. I have discovered that most women in Second Adulthood are very happy being where they are—they don’t want to go back to any of their earlier stages or decades… The assumption is that youth—or at least younger—is the ideal state and that given a choice, no woman in her right mind would relinquish it. I have found the opposite to be true.”

I, too, have found the opposite to be true and I bet you have as well. The years of fifty and beyond present us with many gifts: a newly found freedom to speak our minds and renounce much of our reflexive need to please; a greater sense of strength, mastery, and the ability to roll with the punches; and the drive towards authenticity and becoming the magnificently ripe and wise women we know ourselves to be.

Fifty also brings with it life lessons. Suzanne has highlighted ten of them in her book Fifty is the New Fifty and I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing her about all ten. Please take the brief fifteen minutes to listen to the final broadcast in our series and then check back to listen to each and every one. The lessons are powerful and profound and will guide you well through this amazing time in your life. In fact, you too, will likely start taking umbrage when someone smugly states, “fifty is the new thirty.”

No—it’s not! It’s far from that. Fifty is the brand new, remarkably fertile, ripe, robust, and exceedingly feisty FIFTY!

One of my personal role models in the Internet department is Anne Holmes. Along with her husband, Steve, she’s founded and built several sites with boomers’ interests and needs in mind. These include:

• www.BoomerLifestyle.com – a blog dedicated to the Boomer lifestyle
• www.Boomerpreneur.com – a website that offers coaching designed to help Boomers learn to start their own businesses
• www.BoomerCo.com – a  blog site dedicated to showcasing publishing solutions and the tools Anne and Steve developed to help their fellow Baby Boomers create better blogs

And these are just for starters! The couple recently purchased two leading websites for baby boomer women:

• The National Association for Baby Boomer Women www.NABBW.com
• Boomer Women Speak www.BoomerWomenSpeak.com

The pair has big plans for these sites  and will be adding new resources, a new look, and even more benefits for members.

As Anne likes to say: “Perhaps one of my best credentials in taking over as ‘boomer in chief” at NABBW and Boomer Women Speak, is that I am a fairly typical Baby Boomer Woman, and thus know a lot about what we are all encountering these days. I have true empathy for what all of us are experiencing.

In other words, I know what makes us Boomers. And I not only champion us, I take offense at those who would call us ‘unrealized,’ or infer that we Baby Boomers have not lived up to our country’s expectations. After all, we Boomers have always been about blazing new trails, and we’re not done yet!!  Having tackled civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, then reinvented what makes up a family, and what the work environment looks like, our current task, in my opinion, is to restructure retirement.”

To those ends, Anne and Steve are busily adding to their collection of websites and are focusing on Boomer travel and an online magazine featuring articles written by their fellow Boomer bloggers. So take a few minutes and listen to my interview with THE Boomer in Chief, Anne Holmes. She’s a high energy, fascinating woman who’s a baby boomer to the core—and downright feisty to boot!

Suzanne Braun Levine coined the term in her book, Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood and refers to it again in her next book, 50 is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood. The Fertile Void refers to the period most every woman experiences when her first adulthood gives way to her second. Changing hormones combined with major shifts in life circumstances (empty nests, plateauing careers, relationships grown all-too-familiar, and so forth) produce a period of such significant re-evaluation, that it can shake us to our very core.

The good news, however, is what follows on the other side of the Fertile Void. As we rebuild our lives, Suzanne tells us we stop asking, “What do we want to do?” and start asking, “How do we want to live?” For women, second adulthood becomes a quest for authenticity. We pay less attention to our personality (how we interact socially) and more attention to our character (the way we act when we’re alone) as we move towards a more authentic way of being.

As we become more comfortable and confident in our own skin, any perceived slights and wounding by others carry far less weight—we literally lighten our load. Ideally, we can let much of the baggage we’ve borne for years slip away. And this includes the baggage we’ve piled upon ourselves. It’s a time of forgiving and forgetting as we forge forward toward a new wholeness and self-actualization.

I invite you to take a listen to this latest, and very important, lesson in our 10-part series on embracing our age and making the most of this special time in our lives. Once you pass through the Fertile Void, most women report that the feisty side of fifty is truly a remarkable, deeply rewarding, and enlightening place to be!

In Part One of “Your New Normal,” I told the story of Sally Franz who was hit with Transverse Myelitis and went from being a perfectly healthy Alpha Female to becoming paralyzed—uprooting her reality in a swift and devastating 20 minutes. Although Sally’s experience was extreme, many of us have dealt with difficult and challenging situations of our own: the loss of one or both parents, divorce and the dissolution of relationships, major disappointments and hurts, the loss of a job, and a myriad other major events that sent us into a temporary tailspin.

It seems that, just when we’re coming into our own as fully formed powerful women, life conspires to knock us down. But maybe not. My latest interview with Suzanne Braun Levine, founding editor of Ms. Magazine and author of several books on women and aging, was all about finding the strength to create our new normal after we’ve been hit by major adversity. One of the women she interviewed used the term “forging forward.” Rather than merely “moving forward” or “coping,” this term has energy and determination behind it.

As Suzanne reminds us, the very defiance and strength that wells up within us during the powerful midlife transition we experience as women serves us well. No longer robotically focusing our attention outwards to please others, we’re more equipped to tap into our inner resources and stand up to these types of challenging circumstances. Ironically, Suzanne says, one of the major lessons to be learned at such times, is to reach out to others for aid and assistance. So, while our inner reservoir of strength is increased, so is our ability to ask for help.

It’s one more fascinating lesson from Suzanne’s latest book, “50 is the New Fifty.” I invite you to check out her site and take the brief 15 minutes to listen to our interview. You’ll come away inspired and empowered.

It is true that significant life events may force us to create a new normal, but as women in our fifties and beyond, we can handle it. In fact, when hit by these major events, we boomers can and will forge forward in a very feisty way—flower power all grown up is a thing to behold!