Grumpy women taking control

Fifty-five per cent of the population are aged between 30 and 75, and 51 per cent of them are women.

That means women of a certain age are officially taking over the world, says Judith Holder, author of the book Grumpy Old Women. Its stage version is being performed at the Marlborough Civic Theatre tonight and Holder says its popularity makes her worry she has unleashed something frightening.

Middle-aged women are not what they used to be, she explains. "They are no longer running Women's Institute meetings or busying themselves with cake stalls.

"They are holding down big jobs and, on a good day when they can find some heels they can walk in without looking like Dick Emery or a district nurse, they are trendy, sexy and sassy.

"All this, and they are still tidying the airing cupboard!"

For women on the edge of entering the grumpy sisterhood, Holder, 51, says they need not fear it automatically means becoming frumpy.

"I can say that because I am now more wicked than is strictly socially acceptable and yet, because I am 51, I can get away with it."

Women in their 40s have the right to huff and puff and demand to see the manager, she says.

They can then use middle-aged words such as "shoddy", and "unacceptable" and, rather than laugh at you, people start feeling afraid.

Holder says she is now looking forward to getting a stick – not to walk with, but to poke at people who annoy her.

"I want to prod hopeless shop assistants, or waiters when they're dawdling or maddeningly ignorant ... wave [it] at people who spit on the pavement and are basically a waste of food."

Tonight's New Zealand production of Grumpy Old Women, currently touring the country, is directed by David McPhail and features film and TV actor Geraldine Brophy and comediennes Pinky Agnew and Lyndee-Jane Rutherford.

- The Marlborough Express

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