Boomer Women, Will We All Be Bag Ladies?

I thought it was my private dirty secret, the fear that I would end my days as a bag lady, stockings rolled down around my ankles, sitting on a curb and yelling at passers-by. But according to Lisa Schwarzbaum's article in the New York Time's Magazine, a survey by a life insurance company found that nearly half of all American women share that same fear.

I don't know whether to feel relief in a shared irrational fear or sadness that it's especially rampant among Baby Boomer women. We are the generation, after all, that was raised on a mixed message: as a female, you can be anything you want. You can grow up to be a doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. However, you don't really need to prepare for a professional future since you'll probably be a housewife and mother. I've carried around the bag-lady-to-be persona buried deep inside for a long time, although she really started screaming for attention when I got divorced and realized I was one good divorce lawyer away from sleeping in my car. I exaggerate, but you get the point. Based on Schwarzbaum's recap of Woody Allen's new movie, Blue Jasmine, I'm considering gathering a coterie of baby boomer women friends to see it together, but we might just run screaming from the theater. Ladies, fess up please--anyone else share this nagging nightmare?


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