Women freer in their fifties

The Fabulous Fifties; Jan Bowen; Angus & Robertson; Australia, 1995; 144 pages, A$17.95

MELBOURNE, Australia (JP): Having turned 50 in April, I felt personally honored when in the same month, Jan Bowen's book, The Fabulous Fifties was released. In a society where youth, along with good looks and good health, is worshiped, leaving the fifth decade of one's life means leaving all those ingredients of potential worship behind. And ahead we walk, unencumbered by the constant pressure to look young and beautiful, because we know that is no longer attainable.

Turning 50 also means having lived half a century. So it is time to have a major review of one's achievements so far, because it is an achievement-conscious society we now live in. While a man, regardless of his marital status, can often look back and see an unbroken string of recognized achievements, however minor these are, it might not be that straight forward for a woman.

Even in an ideal situation, a woman with an achievement- conscious mind, who chooses to bring up a family, is faced with difficult options. She either goes full-on into a nurturing mode and forgets about social achievements altogether, or, with an understanding and supportive spouse, goes into a slow, or stop- and-start mode. Many, and I suspect the majority of these women, after completing their nurturing period, find they are too far behind to catch up with the rest of the achieving society and give up. However, there are those who struggle on and succeed, not only in regaining their positions but keep on brilliantly in the works they are doing. Nine of these feature in The Fabulous Fifties.

Reading the book is like having a legitimate peep into these women's lives, with the spotlight panning on the aspects that push them on to the surface again and keep them there. While the nine, selected by the author, are not all household names who flash their smiles at you each time you turn on your TV sets or open the papers, they all have achieved extraordinary feats in the public life. And they are all between 50 and 60, which means that they lived through the militant era of feminism.

However, while they have all striven toward the feminist core idealism of equal opportunity and equal rights, consciously or intuitively, not all are card carrying feminists. Even ideologically these women come from different places on the continuum of the political spectrum.

The common thread throughout the book is the sense of freedom experienced by the women as they crossed the threshold of the next half century of their personal lives. There does not seem to be a blueprint of success that can be gleaned from these women's stories, apart from extraordinary inner qualities and inherent potentials that finally broke through the crusts that had surrounded their lives. Of course the elements of chance and luck cannot be discounted.

Jan Bowen symbolically blows the book open with the story of Sara Henderson, the author of From Strength for Strength, the epitome of quiet and inner strength in a woman. As a born and bred city girl, Sara's marriage to the grandiloquent American- born adventurer Charles Henderson initiated her to decades of an unusual and trying life. In an unconventional environment of living on an outback cattle station in the Northern Territory, Sara played a conventional role of wife and mother. While she displayed an abundance of strength during that time, what shone through to the outside world was her husband's remarkable achievements and outgoing personality. When Charles died, leaving her and their daughters teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Sara did not remain in self-pity and despair for very long. With two of her daughters Sara reversed their profit, winning her the Businesswoman of the Year Award in 1991. She has since blossomed into life as her own self. Menopause came and went without her even noticing; she has been too busy exploring life.

Unlike Sara, whose husband kept her under his shadow throughout their married life, sculptor Anne Ferguson has had the constant support of her lawyer husband, David. Anne was pulled back, however, by social values and conventions prevalent at the time. She was not allowed to go art school because it was full of bohemians and other unconventional people, so she went to university, and failed. Like other women who choose to bring up a family, Anne put her artistic pursuit on hold while she had, and reared, her children.

Then, when she began again, not only did she produce beautiful works, and receive widespread recognition for them, she also discovered the male and female sides of herself. In fact, she seems to be on a constant journey of discovery, in which each turn of events surprises as well as inspires her. Anne sees the 50s as a great privilege, being able to see the past and the future.

"You can't re-invent the past, but you can possibly invent the future," she says.

Each story is introduced by Jan Bowen's account and impression of the subject. The story is then written in the first person, in an honest and unself-conscious manner, giving the reader the impression of having a chat over afternoon tea.

There is neither pretension nor anger, but a gentle reminder from Eve Mahlab, a high-profile feminist with multiple public responsibilities, that the 50s are not fabulous for most women. Not yet.

-- Dewi Anggraeni