Older Women

One woman was on her second career, married to a man who already had children and certain that she didn't want a child of her own. Then she hit 45, and suddenly having a baby was the only thing that mattered. Other women were busy with medical, law or graduate school and then long hours at the office. Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them. Some of them spent years looking for a partner before choosing to become a single mother, or they needed time to get used to the idea of a lesbian couple having a child.

As with most of Washington's titanic battles, many of the casualties from the immigration debacle were unintended victims. Among those with the poor luck to be in the line of fire were Maryland's shrinking crab-processing industry and the mostly Mexican women who make up its seasonal work force. Congress should remedy this injustice as soon as possible by establishing a permanent program that allows such workers visas to come for a few months each year and then go home, without making them and their employers sweat through the 11th-hour theatrics of annual renewals.

Getting older is not something people like to talk about today. But Berkeley, Calif., author Amy Gorman still thought it was a great topic for a book. Aging Artfully (PAL Publishing; $20) is Gorman's look at the lives of 12 visual and performing women artists between the ages of 85 and 105, an idea she came up with several years ago. "I was in my early 60s at the time," recalled Gorman, 66. "I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to hang out with older women, particularly women artists, and see how the creative process evolved in older women."

The bell rang, and Dorothy Binder greeted the man taking a seat across from her. "I want to tell you that I'm very nervous, but I'm here to have a good time today," said Binder, a petite redhead in her 80s. "So, um, what do you like to do?" "Well, uh, I like to go to restaurants and go to the opera," said Clewell Howell, a retired lawyer. The 76-year-old rested his chin on his hand and smiled, his blue eyes warm behind thick glasses. Around the table at the "speed-dating" event last week in Timonium, other seniors chatted in pairs about hobbies and grandchildren, while nodding and scribbling notes.

We hear a lot lately about the retirement insecurity of American workers generally, but less about the fact that women are especially at risk. The demographics point to why we should care: By the time Americans reach age 85, nearly three-fourths (71 percent) are women. This segment of the population is expected to double, and possibly triple, over the next three decades. The result: Women will need more services from communities that are already overburdened and the target of cutbacks. Why?

Two months after a huge clinical trial concluded that calcium supplements don't do much to protect older women from bone fractures, a new study has found just the opposite. Or so it would appear. The paper released this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine said older women who consistently took calcium for five years had significantly fewer broken bones than those who did not. But in February, the Women's Health Initiative - a large government-sponsored study - reported that calcium supplements had little effect.

I'm a woman in my 40s. I usually get my cardio in each week, but my friends tell me I need to be lifting. Is this true, and how do I get started on something that's not going to take over my entire day? This is one of those times that it makes sense to listen to your friends. Strength training is important for a woman of your age, in part because it helps keep your bones strong. It's not uncommon for women as young as 35 to enter a phase called osteopenia, in which the body starts to lose bone density.

Overturning three decades of conventional wisdom, a 13-year study of low-fat diets in nearly 50,000 healthy older women has shown that reducing fat intake alone does not significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, breast cancer or colorectal cancer, researchers reported yesterday. Results from the same study, reported last month, also showed that reducing fats without reducing calories does not lead to significant weight loss. "Just switching to low-fat foods is not likely to yield much health benefit in most women," said Marcia Stefanick, a professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

When Sandy Di Stefano sees a woman wearing a lot of makeup, she doesn't think "pretty," she thinks "face paint." Di Stefano prefers a more natural look. No foundation or powder for her in the morning. A little lipstick, blush and eyeliner and she is good to go. "If it's really noticeable, it's like, 'That doesn't look good,'" says the 31-year-old marketing coordinator for the Italian Trade Commission in Chicago. Like Di Stefano, lots of women are paring their morning makeup routines.

As Marge Burley and Margie Schlundt run the rock-studded hills in Patapsco State Park, fording streams, ducking branches, they are both sure-footed and swift. Finished with work for the day, the friends are training for Ironman triathlons and ultramarathon trail races. Meanwhile, in the city, Laurie Amatucci and Sue Fenimore are devoting some evenings to the track at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School. The two seasoned runners are helping novices train for their first 5K race: the Baltimore Women's Classic to be held at the Inner Harbor on June 26. Although their physical ambitions differ, these four women share the distinction of crossing boundaries that weren't dreamed of when they were growing up in the days before Title IX required schools to provide sports programs for girls.