Women's bodies at every age are expressions of self and culture. In a culture that values slender, taut-skinned youth, the embodied selves of postmenopausal women are dismissed and devalued, jeopardizing self-esteem and increasing the potential for depression and anxiety. Drawing from a qualitative research project on aging and embodied womanhood, this article describes the lived experience of women aging in this social-cultural context. It emphasizes social workers' roles as policy advocates, researchers, and educators in reshaping the cultural discourse and as direct practitioners revising and affirming the embodied selves of women as valued and valuable in the second half of life.
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