AGING FEMINIST: “Hooray for sexual liberation! Now I can die lonely and poor.”

I am a feminist, I really am (I’ve never let a man pay for anything), but feel the current generation of women in their 60s, the first to abandon the way of life of their mothers, which meant they pursued careers, married and had children late, had affairs then got divorced, all in the name of liberation, are now imprisoned in debt, alcohol abuse and loneliness, wishing they could die, and do it soon. . . .

No one ever sat me down and gave me financial advice. Not a bank manager, or my parents, or a teacher, or a boss, or an agent, or even an accountant.

I have worked since I was 18 years old, never had a day off sick or a spell on maternity leave, and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Women like me – I’m now in my 50s – have survived mainly on optimism, the thought that one day we will be OK. The thing is, we have simply run out of time.

She doesn’t say it, but what she ran out of time for was finding a husband to take on for her the financial responsibility that she never did. Turns out that men don’t prefer old women.