In the meantime, please comment on this post. Share your own DARE(S)!

After all, if Liz didn’t DARE Start this post, her loving but sometimes vitriolic girlfriends would torment her, as they pressed her to prove herself.  If she can DARE Start something new and scary in her 50s, SO can you.  If she’s DARING enough to suffer giggles and critiques from her friends and family, who’ve heard her rant about this for nearly two years, so can YOU.  And, if she’s DARING enough to pursue her own venture after two decades of a successful corporate career, YOU can, too!

It’s a good thing, considering that even the female CEO of a top-tier consulting firm melodramatically wrung her hands as she feigned concern that so many of her consultants over 50 “are of retirement age.” (We presume her corporate clients in trouble right now are getting advice from her 20-something hotshots?)

How DARE You? DARE IT BE SAID!

… A study recently published by two female anthropologists asserts women over 48 face a special “Midlife Misery,” compared with men the same age.  Could it be because we’re constantly being evaluated, advised, and marginalized by so-called scientific studies that focus on men’s illnesses, aspirations, and achievements? In one media segment, the scientists were being interviewed by two 30-somethings who made obligatory pitying sounds.  How DARE they!  And, there wasn’t a single fresh idea offered for how women over 48 can prevent and defuse misery!  STOP that!

Have your own examples of
idiotic stereotypes and presumptions
regarding women over 40?

Of course you do!

E-mail Liz: thedareforce@gmail.com.

… Writers of Desperate Housewives, for promulgating the myth (March 15th) that a woman of 43 (Lynette/Felicity Huffman) is too old to be in advertising and marketing. Some of the most memorable marketing campaigns in history were created by WOMEN OVER 40!

• Shirley Polykoff was 48 when she created “Is It True Blondes Have More Fun?” for Clairol.

• Shelley Lazurus was well into her 50s and the CEO of Ogilvy and Mather, when she led the creation of the breakthrough award-winning ad campaign for Dove soap featuring normal women (i.e., not models), which is still running and has kept Dove the best-selling soap brand in the world.

• Charlotte Beers, Lazurus’ predecessor at Ogilvy, was 62 when Fortune magazine placed her on the cover of their first issue to feature the most powerful women in America (1997), for her achievements in the advertising industry.

• Lauren Zalaznick, the head of Bravo TV, is 44. Under her helm, Top Chef, Project Runway, and Shear Genius have become huge hits, edgy programs that command advertising dollars from some of the leading brands in marketing.

So, when clients come brandishing big bucks for marketing campaigns targeting smart women, does anyone think they want their brands in the hands of some inexperienced account rep? Just Say NO!

How DARE They! send a shout out list of “Jobs for You, Elizabeth!” that includes everything from nurse to chemist to E.R. technician – careers for which I have neither the skills nor the interest.  I could seriously hurt someone if I even pretended to attempt those valuable jobs.

I have tried unsuccessfully to unsubscribe to these job sites, all except for this one: www.execunet.com, which has respectful and reputable information, current news and a roster of openings for high-paying C-suite jobs.  It costs to join ExecuNet, but their e-newsletter is FREE. 

Meanwhile, if those other job sites don’t  stop spamming me, I will forward to them those emails touting another kind of member-enhancing solution.  How DARE They!