I am a 50 year old woman who has rediscovered feminism both through her (now adult) children and a difficult divorce. I am a strong, kick-ass, almost fearless woman who once thought of herself as an obvious feminist. However a lifetime of patriarchal conditioning, and a half-lifetime of marriage and motherhood, has led me to realise I have a LOT to learn.

The new joy of my life is relearning what feminism really is, and doing so in conversation with GenZ. Forget snowflakes, what I see strongly in GenZ (my children, their friends and their peers) are kind, wise, and enduring intersectional feminists with the strongest foundations yet to take on and dismantle patriarchal confines.

Throughout my life, I have careered; literally careered from one career plot twist to another. A childhood spent overseas led me to become one of a small number of female physics students  at Oxford, which led on to a commission in the British Army, serving as the first female officer to be appointed to a front-line role. A series of jobs in finance and retail management led to a retraining as a homeopath, a profession in which I still practice. I now find myself a Senior Leader in education, overseeing pastoral care, operations and  safeguarding as a Deputy Head in a London primary school. I have seen and experienced a lot; the good, bad and ugly.  I am also a mother of 3, rebuilding her life after the car-crash ending of a 20 year marriage.

I have a lot to say about being a GenX woman in a man’s world, about being a GenX woman in a marriage, about being a GenX mother, about being a GenX woman in a new GenZ world. But even more than what I have to say, I have a lot to learn.