In Our Prime: How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead Hardcover – March 10, 2020

In Our Prime is a WONDERFUL chronicle of history for every woman boomer. Susan Douglas is spot on in her recounting of the women’s movement, and she does it comprehensively, intelligently and with refreshing humor. I found myself saying, “I remember that! I didn’t know that! That’s exactly how I feel!” and lots of times, laughing right out loud. What a wonderful Mother’s Day present from daughters, nieces, granddaughters, goddaughters, etc to bridge the generations and identify touchstones in our women’s movement, no matter what your age. Everyone can learn from this funny, inspiring, and relatable book!

I'm not a "woman in her prime." I'm a 29 year old man, but damn this book was good. I feel enlightened, angry, and inspired. Definitely sending this to my mom!

As a 70 year old athlete, I was so hoping to find a smart, incisive & thoughtful read about the power of aging. This book doesn’t come close. She diverts from what should have been a focus on this unifying passage of womanhood, to cheap political slaps having nothing to do with this special transitional time. Don’t waste your time reading it... so disappointing.

The author piles on research and statistics citing women's accomplishments, but when it comes to stating her arguments that older women are subject to ageist and sexist bias, the evidence she proffers is less than anecdotal, e.g. "television commercials would have us growing peonies."Many of her arguments are based on media portrayals (namely, the lack of such) of older women, as well as the fact that we're not targeted by advertisers. The belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the business model of commercial media: selling products to consumers who have not yet established brand loyalty, and who don't already own most of the stuff they need, i.e. older consumers. She asks why advertisers don't try to reach older buyers, "their most loyal consumers," a question that contains its own answer. It was genuinely shocking to learn the author is a professor of media, given she clearly does not understand in the slightest how either commercial media or marketing work.For portrayals of older women in media, she has only to look beyond ad-supported fare. Netflix alone currently has "Gracie and Frankie," starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda; a feature film starring Sofia Loren, and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," an Oscar nominated film about an older woman of color who is also a lesbian. Speaking of the Oscars, "Nomadland "was the odds-on favorite this year and earned its female director, Chloé Zhao, a rare award, not to mention the fact that it stars and was produced by Frances McDormand, a woman in her 60s.Douglas, while calling on woman to come together to fight age- and gender based discrimination, seemingly can't go three pages without taking swipes at Republicans and conservative politicians. While I personally agree with her politics, it certainly does not serve her stated purpose of unity to continually attack and grouse at politicians a significant number of her target audience support. This is not consensus-building, this is alienating.Other swipes are also unsettling. She attacks Vanity Fair for putting Caitlin Jenner on the cover instead of a "real" woman over 60 (transphobia, anyone?), implying this is the only such portrayal that magazine has made, conveniently ignoring that publication's other cover-women such as Elizabeth Taylor and Queen Elizabeth.This range of cherry-picked research and personal bias would be inexcusable in any book, but its egregious in a book researched and written by an academic. It's also evidence of shoddy to the point of inexcusable editing. A real social problems deserves to be better argued and documented than this very poor excuse for a book.

"In Our Prime" by Susan J. Douglas is a new sort of "coming of age" book that offers a context for the wildly contradictory messages women receive as they leave the shelter of youth to brave the storms of "old age" -- whatever euphemisms are used to describe it -- which for some begins at the ripe old age of 30. While most people aspire to continue aging as long as possible, death being unattractive to most, many view those who accomplish the feat as diminished. That's particularly true for women, whose value long has been associated with appearance, much more so than men, and who historically have been much less likely to acquire power. Experience is good, but wrinkles are hideous. Assertiveness is good if you can manage to be obsequious at the same time. In "In Our Prime," Douglas shines a bright light on a vast array of misconceptions about women who choose not to close any doors on their future prospects just because they've reached a certain birthday. She sounds a rallying cry for women to support one another in all stages of life, building bridges of understanding between younger and older generations, disintegrating prejudices while seizing both pride and opportunity.

A lot of this is redundant. The audience knows the experience and the history. The what to do chapter at the end was helpful.

This is an excellent book that really captures both the science and the culturally ascribed meaning of this thing called “middle age.” Susan Douglas’s exploration of the emotional, cognitive, and experiential package that, if we are lucky, we own at that time of life was fascinating and highly accessible. Really brilliantly written -- and provides an excellent launching point for those of us in “middle age” to understand where we are in our lives and push back on the roles to which we are assigned, the cramped or reduced expectations others have of us, and our own self-imposed limitations and push forward in new journeys that embrace everything we are. I just wish this book would be read by a wide spectrum of people from different ages and backgrounds. Afterall, we all aspire to get here!

This book is articulate and thorough, but relentlessly negative. Great if you want to throw yourself a pity party and decide your life is ruined because you're at a societal disadvantage. I'm a woman in the age group this book is about, and yes, it's not always easy, but reading a list of grievances -- no matter how well researched and written -- isn't what I'd consider a constructive use of my time. I got through this book because I played it on Audible. I don't know that I would have gotten through it on the printed page. I had hoped for something with a dash of humor or some solid actionable advice. Not my idea of an enjoyable book.