Showing results by author "Gail Collins" in All Categories

In her lively social history of American women and aging, acclaimed New York Times columnist Gail Collins illustrates the ways in which age is an arbitrary concept that has swung back and forth over the centuries. From Plymouth Rock (when a woman was considered marriageable if "civil and under fifty years of age"), to a few generations later, when they were quietly retired to elderdom once they had passed the optimum age for reproduction, to recent decades, American attitudes towards age have been a moving target.

America's Women tells the story of more than four centuries of history. It features a stunning array of personalities, from the women peering worriedly over the side of the Mayflower to feminists having a grand old time protesting beauty pageants and bridal fairs. Courageous, silly, funny, and heartbreaking, these women shaped the nation and our vision of what it means to be female in America.

Steeped in the faith tradition of the American Transcendentalists (the majority of whom, like Emerson, were Unitarian ministers), the author's own spiritual life was likewise grounded and guided by nature. So of course she said yes to a career in interim ministry that would require her to relocate every summer. What would each new landscape, from Nevada to Vermont to Colorado to Arizona to South Carolina to Maine, have to teach her spirit?