Red Hot Mamas - Hardcover

The first of the baby-boomers have reached the half-century mark. And, as always, they're changing our cultural view of things. Dowling shares her own transition to maturity. She takes a look at the issues affecting women as they age in our culture: sex after menopause, marrying more than once and finances, to name a few. Armed with enough information, maybe we women can start to view age as a good thing.

Here's a compulsively readable dispatch from the frontiers of fifty--funny and bracing, savvy and inspiring. "Red hot mamas" are the dozens of women (some famous, some not) Colette Dowling interviewed who are discovering their power and vitality at midlife--many for the first time. Defying the stereotype of the woman who is on-the-shelf at fifty, they are reinventing themselves: redefining family responsibilities, changing jobs and careers, discovering new approaches to menopause, and remaking their intimate relationships.

Dowling is honest about the pitfalls, pinpointing the key dilemmas women must solve if they are to keep moving forward through the "age barriers" of our culture. But whether she's discussing new sexual strategies, the politics of face-lifts, the lure of a red sports car or the lure of a new marriage, there's no mistaking the mood of celebration. Red Hot Mamas is the best fiftieth birthday present ever for a ground-breaking generation of women now poised to take off on the second half of their adult lives.