No intention of going gently. Women in later life.

Three artists

Louise Bourgeois was 88 years old when she created Maman, a giant sculpture of a spider. The work was 30 feet high and 33 feet across and it was first exhibited in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in the year 2000. Louise Bourgeois died in 2010 at the age of 98.

'The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever.' 

Edna O’Brien was born in 1930 and died in 2024. When she was in her 80s, she travelled to Nigeria twice, to speak to some of the girls who had been victims of the Boko Haram abductions. The visits provided the basis for her last novel, Girl, published in 2019, which is a harrowing account of the kidnappings and rapes, and starts with the chilling sentence: 

‘I was a girl once, but not any more’. 

Edna O’Brien spoke later about how the focus of all her writing had been: 

‘to chart and get inside the mind, soul, heart and emotion of girls in some form of restriction, some form of life that isn't easy, but who find a way to literally plough their way through and come out as winners of sort – maybe not getting prizes – but come through their experiences and live to tell the tale.'

Ninette de Valois (1899-2001) was in every sense the ‘owner’ of British Ballet. Without her drive and passion, the Royal Ballet companies in London and Birmingham would not have developed and there would have been no Royal Ballet School. Born in Ireland (her first dance was a jig taught by the family cook) she trained as a classical dancer and choreographer, welcomed the young Margot Fonteyn and worked with Diaghilev, Frederick Ashton and the great world ballet companies.

Throughout all her later life she made regular appearances at the White Lodge junior ballet school in Richmond to watch and celebrate the young dancers of the future. When she visited on her birthday at the age of 100, she looked up at the clear summer sky and said: 

'I don’t see how anything up there can be as beautiful as this’. 

These three extraordinary artists, the sculptor, the author and the dancer, all continued working into their nineties, fully aware of their own encroaching mortality, but choosing to carry on, compelled to do the things that they must do. 

Retirement? Not quite, not yet

It’s inspiring to see so many women in their late 80s and 90s who remain in the public eye and are still committed to their work and beliefs. Sheila Hancock (92) gave regular commentaries this year at the recent BBC Promenade concerts; Julie Andrews sailed through her 90th birthday this month and has launched a podcast to promote children’s literacy; Judi Dench (born 1934) is still involved in advocacy and project work in spite of macular degenerative disease; Bridget Riley (94) continues to paint and exhibit, and Vanessa Redgrave (88) true to form, was seen in August banging a pan at a protest against the starvation in Gaza. Add your own names to the list – there are many to choose from.

Magnificent monsters

Elderly women characters in literature are not always treated kindly. There are grotesque caricatures and offensive stereotypes, but there are also women of such extraordinariness that they are impossible to forget. Vengeful, cruel and damaged women like Miss Havisham in Dickens’ Great Expectations or Queen Margaret, who appears in several of Shakespeare’s history plays, are powerful and complex characters. 
Jane Austen cheerfully satirises snobbish self-centred behaviour in Pride and Prejudice with her creation of the hilariously repellent Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and P.J. Wodehouse often recreates his personal fear of his own elderly aunts in his novels. In The Code of the Woosters, for example, Bertie Wooster describes his Great Aunt Agatha as one who ‘eats broken bottles and wears barbed wire next to the skin.’ And then of course there are the grandmothers – kind and brave like Grandma in Tove Jansson’s Summer Book, or rather disgraceful like Grandmama in The Addams Family, described by the author as someone who: ‘willingly helps with the dishes, cheats at solitaire and is thoroughly dishonest. She, too, is a favourite with the children and will make them cookies in the shape of bats, skulls and bones.’ 

So many role models – and two special ones for October

Well, October means Halloween, and the shops are full of witchy stuff. But rather than try now to explore that whole area and the nastiness inflicted for centuries upon innocent elderly women, we’ll end on a positive note and think about another important October event - Black History Month - and celebrate two remarkable women.

Katherine Johnson died in February 2020 at the age of 101. She was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, showing mathematical talent from an early age. As her local school did not provide schooling for African American children after eighth grade, her family had to organise a different school for her. She later became one of three black students to be integrated into West Virginia’s graduate schools. She joined NASA as a ‘human computer’, where African American women had to work in segregated facilities. Her career progressed, she became a NASA scientist, and in 1962 her calculations helped in securing the three orbits round the earth made by John Glenn. She then worked with NASA engineers on the Apollo moon landing programme, co-authored a book on space and was involved in early work on looking at missions to Mars. In 2015 President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying: 

‘Katherine G. Johnson refused to be limited by society’s expectations of her gender and race while expanding the boundaries of humanity’s reach.’ 

Leontyne Price, one of the world’s great sopranos, is 98 years old, born in 1927 in Laurel, Mississippi – a segregated community, subject at the time to Jim Crow Laws where black people were unable to share schools, churches, theatres etc, with white people. She studied piano before entering the Juilliard to concentrate on her voice. Her first appearance in grand opera was in a broadcast version of Tosca in 1955, where she performed with a white male co-star – leading to some outrage in the United States. She later became the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House and was one of the first African American singers to gain an international reputation. 

At the age of 74 she sang at a memorial concert for the victims of the September 11 attacks and in 2017 at the age of 90, she appeared in a documentary about the new Metropolitan Opera House. Speaking about her beliefs she said: 

‘If you are going to think black, think positive about it. Don’t think down on it or think it is something in your way. And this way, when you really do want to stretch out and express how beautiful black is, everybody will hear you.’

OCTOBER UPDATE ON THE MK FAWCETT CAMPAIGN FOR A SAFER, HEALTHIER, FAIRER MILTON KEYNES

  • The latest Evidence Paper, a compilation of data relating to Milton Keynes and our Safer, Healthier and Fairer manifesto, will be ready to disseminate in October
  • Members have worked with partners to mark the Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls on 25th November, the start of the UN 16 Days of Action. There will be a series of events including a torchlight vigil at The Rose in CMK. A photographic exhibition in Middleton Hall will showcase a ‘craftivism’ response to the scourge of VAWG. Details of events HERE
  • We met with Emily Darlington our MP for Milton Keynes Central in October for an extensive exchange of information. We are appreciative of her time.
  • We have submitted a response to the second consultation on the draft MKCC Domestic Abuse strategy 
  • MK Fawcett was represented at the inaugural conference of the OU’s Centre for Protecting Women Online. The two days offered a highly varied programme, stimulating and challenging, allowing participants to share ideas and strategies onp preventing online violence against women and girls. It was also good to meet up with Penny East, CEO of the Fawcett Society. More information HERE 
  • We welcomed the CEO of Healthwatch MK to our October meeting to speak about the NHS 10-year plan and women’s health, as well as what the demise of Healthwatch could mean for the city
  • We are now regularly attending and reporting on the stakeholder events arranged by the BLMK Women’s Health Network to better understand what advances in service provision are being made to address inequality in women’s health
  • We met with the MK Youth Council earlier in October for a stimulating discussion about Voting at 16
  • We will continue to promote the manifesto campaign and encourage people to become more involved with the political process
  • We have contributed to the planning of the annual Fawcett Society conference, to take place in February 2026 
  • MKF now has a Linkedin presence as well as being on BlueSky. Please follow us on these platforms as well as at www.fawcettmk.org.uk 

Location: Milton Keynes, UK

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