The Power of Late Bloomers The attempts to disempower an American woman unfold across her lifetime. She is sexualized as a young girl, loses her reproductive freedom as a young woman, takes on the “Second Shift” as a mother, and becomes invisible after menopause. Rendering women over fifty invisible is insidious because in reality age liberates us. Not only do we live longer than men, our healthspan is longer as well. Our energy is liberated