A Solution?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ehrenreich6jun06,0,3457719.story
COMMENTARY
Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma.
By Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author, most recently, of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" (Owl Books, 2002).


In this article, Ehrenreich uses the feminine grandparent. Why not the male senior family member? Could it be that women live longer? Or, could it be that men have, traditionally, held positions of power while women held positions of caring and/or mentoring?

What to do with Grandma has long been a problem. However, here in Massachusetts, ageism is (according to an intake worker at the MA Commission Against Discrimination) the number one form of discrimination in this state. What that means is women of a certain age are kept out of gainful employment. It doesn't matter how educated or articulate the woman is: her gender condemns her to a pastiche of part-time jobs that never add up to a full income and seldom include benefits.

I'm the same age as our governor and no one said Mitt Romney was too old to run for office or that he lacked the necessary experience to be run the state. At the same time, both men and women are being told they will have to work until age 70. It just may be that three part-time jobs will kill Grandma before her 70th birthday and solve the problem.