The first step is to practise giving love and encouragement to yourself. Dare to give yourself hope that you can become more flexible, then try again to engage with others

The dilemma I am a 44-year-old single woman, working in a pensionable job that I would rather not work in. I own my own home outright.

In the past I did have issues with substance misuse, but I got help to overcome that and have been clean and sober for more than four years. But my history of addiction is part of my private identity – meaning few know about it.

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In our patriarchal society, succeeding is usually defined in financial terms. It’s time we changed the game

Martha Gill identifies that women are intelligent enough to learn lessons from the negative experience of (so-called) high-achieving women and avoid following a similar path (“ There’s good reason why strong female role models deter other women from aiming for the top ”, Comment). She refers to the patriarchal system within which such “successful” women are operating. That surely is the key issue. No less than men, women want to succeed in life. But for many – even most – the definition of what constitutes success is not the same as that proffered within the patriarchal system.

The women’s liberation movement has striven for women to gain access into the male game and identified as successful those women who rise to the top playing by those rules. That was understandable as a beginning, given that a critical first step for women was financial independence. But 50 years on, that is no longer enough for many women. Success defined in narrow patriarchal (usually financial) terms is not something they necessarily consider worth striving for. The game needs to change and so become worth playing. That is today’s challenge for the women’s liberation movement.
Johanna Nixon
Harrow, London

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New research suggests people who are childfree by choice are pretty happy with their decisions, while some parents are not

You’ll be lonely. Nobody will look after you when you get old. You’ll miss out on life’s greatest joy. You won’t ever be truly fulfilled. Your life will be meaningless and shallow. Everyone will pity you. If you choose not to have children then you’ll end up regretting it forever.

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From the first to time through to the menopause, expert advice on how to improve your sex life – no matter your age, experience or desire

There’s an irony – or maybe not – in the fact that since we’ve become more “open” about sex as a society, we’ve been having less of it. So sex is everywhere, but not so much in the nation’s bedrooms (or sitting room floors, or on the kitchen worktops or wherever else you might care to get down to it). The generation that had most sex was born in the 1930s – the so-called silent generation; the generations that have it least are millennials, born between 1981 and 1996 and Gen Z who are born between 1997 and 2012.

In Britain, across all age groups, around one in four of us has sex at least once in an average week with almost one in 10 of us managing three times – but the older we are, the less common sex is. The average age someone loses their virginity is 17 , with late twentysomethings having the most sex. But by our late 30s, four in 10 report having not had sex in the past week, and around a fifth of 40 to 44-year-olds aren’t having sex at all.

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The supreme court on Friday blocked restrictions ordered by lower courts on mifepristone

The supreme court on Friday blocked restrictions on mifepristone while a lawsuit brought by anti-abortion groups targeting the pill proceeds.

In an unsigned order, the justices granted an emergency request by the Biden administration to prevent a lower court ruling targeting the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of the pill. As a result of the supreme court’s order, access to the drug will remain unchanged as the case proceeds.

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Research claims to show link between cancer and lye-containing products largely used by black women

Campaigners are calling on the cosmetics company L’Oréal to withdraw its hair-straightening products that are largely used by black women after research linked it to an increased risk of cancer.

In an open letter, coordinated by the UK feminist group Level Up, campaigners also ask the company to invest in research on the long-term use of chemical relaxers, which make hair easier to straighten.

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National Museums NI has partnered with the Belfast photo festival to present a newly commissioned body of work by photographer Hannah Starkey honouring and celebrating the women who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Principled & Revolutionary: Northern Ireland’s Peace Women is on display at the Ulster Museum until 10th September

Belfast-born Hannah Starkey’s portraits aim to ignite a conversation about the impact and importance of women’s leadership, not just in Northern Ireland, but globally. Her works highlight some of the many women who have been pivotal to peace-building and community activism in the country through their work in the spheres of politics, culture and society.

All photographs are courtesy Belfast Photo festival/Hannah Starkey.

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Black women are four times more likely than white women to die giving birth. Fixing that requires change that goes way beyond healthcare

In 2018, we learned that Black women were five times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts. Five years on, the data hasn’t changed much. Now, we are almost four times more likely to die, according to the findings of a new report by the women and equalities committee.

Ministers had failed to tackle “appalling” and “glaring” racial disparities in maternal health over a number of years, the authors found. This comes as little surprise to me. Every year, I and other Black commentators who feel passionately about these disgusting racial disparities in maternal outcomes are rolled out to condemn the latest figures that point to Black women dying at disproportionate rates. I wish I could still feel shocked. But, if I can be frank, I’m just bored.

Candice Brathwaite is a journalist and author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother, Sister Sista and Cuts Both Ways

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

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Women face barriers in the sector, including harassment and exclusionary unions, but they would help resolve a crucial labor shortage and could also help close the gender wage gap

As a child, Cora Saxton liked to make things – forts, whittled wood carvings, a flying saucer even – so when she became an electrician at 49, it felt like a perfect fit.

“I like the puzzle-solving and being able to look back at the end of the day and see the physical result of your hard work,” she said.

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