His Age Gets a Toast, Hers Gets a Whisper - Fact 10

THE WOMAN PROJECT — Woman Fact 10

We know that cosmetic surgery is real and for the rich and famous, it is a normal process in everyday life. There are so many women we can celebrate, must celebrate, our mothers, our grandmothers, not for the shape of their bodies, or looks, but what these women weathered throughout their lives, passed on the vital lessons to us and future generations. They taught us the essence of being a woman. Stand tall stand proud. Celebrate you! Shout it out loud.

His birthday gets a toast. Hers gets a whisper. Every single year she's lived is proof, not something to lower her voice about.

READ IT

I've noticed it at parties. A man turns fifty, and people raise a glass, "look at him, still going strong." A woman turns fifty, and the room somehow lowers its voice, as if her age were a secret slipping out.

Research backs up what so many women already feel in their bones. Studies going back decades find women are judged as less attractive with age far more sharply than men, even though both sexes age at the same pace. One large survey found 63% of women over fifty reported experiencing age discrimination. Cross-country research even found something striking: men tend to say a woman becomes "old" at a younger age than women say it about themselves.

Here's what deserves to be said instead: every year a woman has lived is a year of lessons nobody can take from her, wisdom nobody can fake, resilience earned the hard way. That's not something to whisper about. That's something to celebrate, out loud, the exact same way we celebrate his.

THINK IT

Have you ever hesitated to say your own age out loud? What would it feel like to say it the way you'd announce any other genuine achievement?