EP 82 How Older Women Can Reclaim Power, Purpose & Visibility
What happens when women refuse to fade quietly with age? In this powerful episode of Don’t Be Caged By Your Age, I sit down with renowned feminist scholar and cultural critic Susan J. Douglas, author of In Our Prime - How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead, to explore the intersection of sexism and ageism — and why older women are uniquely positioned to reshape the road ahead. Susan shares what fueled her decades-long focus on sexism in media and culture, and why she believes gender...
What happens when women refuse to fade quietly with age?
In this powerful episode of Don’t Be Caged By Your Age, I sit down with renowned feminist scholar and cultural critic Susan J. Douglas, author of In Our Prime - How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead, to explore the intersection of sexism and ageism — and why older women are uniquely positioned to reshape the road ahead.
Susan shares what fueled her decades-long focus on sexism in media and culture, and why she believes gendered ageism is one of the most urgent — and overlooked — issues facing women today. Together, we unpack how society pressures women to become invisible as they age, why intergenerational solidarity matters, and how reclaiming visibility is both a personal and political act.
This conversation is a rallying cry for women 65+ who are seeking fulfillment, purpose, and success on their own terms — and a reminder that aging can be a time of expansion, activism, and becoming.
✨ If you’re ready to age out loud, challenge limiting narratives, and step fully into your prime, this episode is for you.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why sexism alone doesn’t explain women’s experiences of aging
- What gendered ageism looks like in media, marketing, and culture
- The importance of intergenerational feminism and bridge-building
- Reclaiming visibility, purpose, and agency after 65
- Why older women matter — now more than ever
This episode is an invitation to women 65+ — and to anyone who believes aging is about becoming, not declining — to step fully into their prime.
To learn more about Susan, her current book In Our Prime, and her other extraordinary achievements and books, and her current role as the Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Michigan - please visit her website here.
If you found inspiration from this conversation, please rate, review and share this episode.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, so be sure to hop on over to Don’t Be Caged By Your Age on LinkedIn or Instagram. Or leave a message on the website here.
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Ande ♥
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Susan Douglas grew up in New Jersey, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Elmira college and then earned her MA and Ph.D. in American Civilization at Brown University. After a brief stint as an historian at the Smithsonian, she began teaching media studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. In 1996 she joined the faculty of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan. Her research has focused on two broad areas, the history of broadcasting with an emphasis on radio, and the representation of women in the media. She is the author of seven books, including Where the Girls Are, which was named one of the top ten books of 1994 by Entertainment Weekly and NPR, her prize-winning Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination, Enlightened Sexism and In Our Prime. She has appeared on mutiple radio and television shows including Fresh Air, All Things Considered, the Today Show, and the Oprah Winfrey Show, among others. She served on the Board of the George Foster Peabody Awards for six year and served as its Chair in 2010. Her daughter works in public health in Boston, and she lives with her husband TR Durham, who owns a critically acclaimed smoed salmon shop in Ann Arbor.
