Antipasto
In the present day, women in Europe reach on the average 80 years of age, which never happened before. There barely exists a social map of the third and fourth phases of the life of older women. This offers them the opportunity to decide for themselves in which direction they want to go, how, with whom. First of all they should not allow new, patriarchal theories to be attached to them, where they have no voice.

Pasta
Why ‘Changing Track’?
1. Many women of around 50 feel the need to readjust their design of life. Often this necessitates a thunderclap. Sometimes it starts with a painful loss, sometimes with daily discomfort. It also happens that something is changing inside the woman herself. It is not easy to change track: often it is preceeded by a profound crisis in which the vital questions are being asked again.
2. Older women in Europe have been born before or during World War II. Most of them have raised children and lived as housewives. They could do with some support.
3. Older women possess a wealth of knowledge out of experience which our highly developed economy is not interested in at all. It is important to hand this knowledge to younger women.
4. Women who give birth to children nowadays, live under even bigger pressure: society claims more of them than it claimed from their mothers. These women are obliged to obtain an independent economic position during the same period in which they raise their children. Older women can really signify something for their daughters, without depending on them or being misused.

Primo piatto
In 1996 Linda, Italian, 79 years old, and Brit, Dutch, 55 years old, participated on behalf of A.I.D.A., Association of Italian Active/Older Women,from Perugia, in ‘Changing Track’, an International 50+Women’s Project, subsidized by the European Commission. We have been living together for almost twenty years. The goal was to first map the ways in which older women in different locations in Europe are creating their own ways of living , from which indicators had to be developed. A financial stop blocked the second part of the project. What follows is our personal sketchbook of CT, in which Scotland, Austria, Germany and Italy participated. Between February and November 1996 the delegates of each country organised five meetings, in which they showed each other the activities in their cities/regions, in Graz (2), Glasgow, Russelsheim and Perugia. Besides many positive moments, there also were some annoying problems of communication, for which we see two reasons. The differences between women who participated were huge: there were women from rural areas and cities, black and white women, working- and middle class women, women from both sides of the Alps. The other reason is that there were many powergames going on, by which we mean that some women used power in indirect ways. To cooperate well, older women will have to come to terms with differences between them, and with the ways in which they use power.

Secondo piatto
We have distilled a selfhelp program from the meetings and workshops of CT, which we want to sketch. In every region of Europe some results for research into the position of older women have been published. With them this program will get back - up. The goal is to rebuild your lifehouse as an older woman. We shall look at the foundations; afterwards it will be much easier to restructure the rooms. We distinguish 6 foundations ( the concept comes from GEFAS/Graz).

1. Your personal history until today
How do you interpret the way you have gone so far? The point is to trust your own eyes and take responsibiliy for whatever you see. More easily said than done!

2. Health
How does it feel inside your skin? Figures don’t lie about it: women get older and older, but it is attended by a lot of trouble and discomfort. It is important that older women plead for care whilst keeping as much autonomy as possible.

3. Financial position
As most older women didn’t build autonomous pension claims, their financial position will not be rose-coloured. Moreover the difference in the height and building up of social pensions in each country are big. Be active to invent payable and pleasant old age benefits!

4. Yourself in relation to others
Not mentioned as the first foundation, for a change. Have you got the people around you you need. If you have no contact with your children, which happens much more often than we usually think, how do you come to terms with that? Three- quarters of the women above 70 who have lived with a man will have lost their partner at that time. For a 50+ woman the chance of finding a male partner has reduced to 8 %. Women who love women face the problem of the visibility of their relationship.

5. Social participation
It is a choice in life to be active whilst getting old! Do you choose a creative way to express your long experience of life? Do you become active in politics, learn a new language or sing in a choir?

6. Giving sense
How do you want to round off your life? Are you able to give a meaning to the time which you have covered? Many women have grown up with the norms and values of traditional churches. They will feel the need to find out once more if they still fit into these structures.

Some of the 6 foundations will feel good; some might be loaded with difficult feelings. Not so many older women live succesful lives in every way; don’t be mistaken. Something is lacking in the life of every older woman. Accepting what is not possible, but even more what is possible, produces a kind of calm which can lead to a more profound insight into life. This insight will escape you as long as you are trying to understand life as a dominating influence. Older women might produce a lead here, less geared as they are to control.

Dolce
The women of GEFAS from Graz have invented the image of elephants to represent older women’s lives. Their color is grey, the number of variants is endless. Female elephants of different generations wander about together. Together they give alarm whenever a young one, which they carefully protect, is being attacked. They play together, mourn for their dead and they can show their teeth. For want of water the older ones burrow as long as necessary with their trunks until they find it; they then allow the young ones to drink first. The huge ears, feature of the African elephants, function as infallible antennas in social intercourse. Their thick, but in some spots very sensitive skin has to be wet every day to make them feel comfortable. They move in herds, without noise, because they have got some kind of cushions under their toes. Isn’t this an outstanding symbol for older women?