Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro

My interest has always been in women’s issues. I wrote three books on women’s midlife issues when I was in the heart of midlife: one on the empty nest, one on women’s friendships and another on yoga for women at midlife and beyond. Now that I’m in my mid-sixties (and beyond midlife), I’m interested in the issues that affect women of my age. The women in the book, who range in age from 56 to 76, all came home later in life. Their late home-coming is part of what made them so fascinating to me.

Stereotypes about older women flood the media: that we’re dull, uninteresting, invisible and “over the hill.”  When you read my book, however, you get a very different image of older women. The book shows their vitality, their resiliency and their desire to keep growing and developing no matter what their age.

This is why I hope that younger women will read my book. The women featured in it are wonderful role models in living authentic, meaningful lives as older women and in aging with grace, passion and spirit.