EP09: Older Women & Personal Agency

<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Staying in the Driver’s Seat of Life</span></em></p> <p><strong><em> “There's so much ageism in the world.”</em></strong><strong>-  Melissa Batchelor </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Do you feel like you are in the driver’s seat of your own life? With COVID-19, many of us may not feel like we are. These same feelings can happen to you as you age, but there are ways to help older adults get back to feeling like they are in the driver's seat of their own lives. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode, we invited Cindy Cox- Roman, a market researcher, gerontologist, and the founder of WIT Consulting to talk about “personal agency”. Her professional experience made her aware of how marginalized older people are in society and when working on her Master’s degree in Gerontology, she became interested in the concept of “personal agency” - and particularly in older women.</span></p> <p><strong>Part One of Older Women and Personal Agency </strong></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">But what is personal agency? </span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We understand that this is not a common term used every day, and some of you are a bit confused right now.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Personal agency is a term used in academics by sociologists. It refers to the idea of having a hand in the direction that your life takes. Most of us refer to it as having self-determination and being self-sufficient. It's synonymous with being in the driver seat of your own life. But what makes a person lose that sense of personal agency in the first place? How can we help people live the best moments of their older adult life?  </span></p> <p><strong><em>“We must adjust how we help someone maintain their agency.” - Melissa Batchelor </em></strong></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Who are we referring to when we talk about “older women”? </span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When we say older women, we typ