PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Why older women are embracing the open road

Older women are challenging traditional views of aging, embarking on solo road trips in search of adventure, personal growth and new horizons.

2025-01-14
(Press-News.org) Older Australian women are challenging traditional views of aging, embarking on solo road trips and travelling the country in search of adventure, personal growth and new horizons.

Equipped with a caravan, campervan, or a sturdy 4WD and a tent, these women are navigating vast landscapes, from the dusty Oodnadatta Track to the spectacular Tasmanian wilderness.

Margaret Yates, a PhD candidate from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Faculty of Health and a retired nurse, interviewed 29 women travellers to explore their motivations and experiences. The majority were over sixty and considered themselves retired.

Her research paper, Women travelling solo or with other women across Australia: A montage of narratives, with Professor Lin Perry, Emeritus Professor Jenny Onyx and Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones, was recently published in the Journal of Women and Aging.

“For many of these women, this isn’t just about travel,” said Yates. “It’s about developing self-knowledge and self-confidence, experiencing the new and unknown, and taking control of their life and decisions, often after years of caring for others."

“The four women highlighted in the study, two in their sixties and two in their seventies, exemplify a willingness to break away from what might be expected of women in that age group and redefine what’s possible,” she said.

The study is part of Yates’s wider PhD research examining the experiences, health and social needs of women travellers from the ‘grey nomad’ population. Many women, despite chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease, report better wellbeing, with less stress and improved health due to the travelling lifestyle.

One of the case studies, Vivian* , in her mid-sixties, has been living on the road for nine years. She said a discovery scuba dive in Far North Queensland was the catalyst to sell her business, rent out her house and take off on adventure. “The best choice I ever made,” she said.

After decades of running a small business seven days a week, she was keen for a change. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy and I knew there’d be hurdles and tough times,” she said. “That probably made me even more determined.”

Yates said the decision to start a new life on the road takes courage and resolve, and is often made in the face of considerable opposition from friends and family, who question whether the women can manage alone.

Solo female travellers often develop informal networks at campgrounds and rest stops, sharing tips, stories, and support. The women said they generally felt very safe. They also felt a great sense of achievement, and many shared their adventures on social media.

The road isn’t always smooth. Travellers can face a range of challenges, including vehicle breakdowns, intermittent communications, illnesses and injuries, and the isolation of remote areas. However, many find these obstacles empowering rather than discouraging.

“If you are in a situation where you’re in the middle of nowhere and you get a flat tyre and there’s nobody about, you go, well, I’ve got to deal with it. If I don’t deal with it, I’m stuck here… I’ve learnt a lot about myself, my weak points and my strong points as well,” said Vivian.

Yates attributes the trend to broader societal changes. Increased financial independence, improved healthcare – including telehealth options, and shifting perceptions of aging, have opened doors for women to explore unconventional lifestyles.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many to reassess their priorities, fuelling a desire for meaningful experiences over material possessions.

“I knew it is an amazing country and you see things in magazines, TV and travel shows but it’s not until you get on the road that you will see there’s so much more,” said Aria, an intrepid woman in her early sixties who travels with her dog Rusty.

“When I left home the plan was only to go away for one year, but I’ve just fallen in love with what I am doing and years later I’m still going and still loving it.”

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Shift to less reliable ‘natural’ contraception methods among abortion patients over past 5 years

2025-01-14
There has been a shift away from the use of more reliable hormonal methods of contraception to less reliable fertility awareness methods among women requesting abortion in England and Wales over the past 5 years, reveals research published online in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health.   Use of the Pill, mini Pill, implants, patches, and vaginal rings has given way to more ‘natural’ methods, such as period tracking apps that highlight monthly peak fertility/ovulation, the findings ...

Tobacco advertising + sponsorship bans linked to 20% lower odds of smoking

2025-01-14
Implementing bans on the advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products is linked to 20% lower odds of smoking, and 37% lower risk of taking up the habit, reveals a pooled data analysis of the available research, published online in Tobacco Control.   The findings indicate that these bans do influence behaviour, lending further weight to calls for their wider international implementation and enforcement, conclude the researchers. In 2019 alone, more than a billion people around the globe regularly smoked tobacco, and smoking caused nearly 8 million deaths, note the researchers. To curb the toll ...

Vascular ‘fingerprint’ at the back of the eye can accurately predict stroke risk

2025-01-14
A vascular ‘fingerprint’ on the light sensitive tissue layer at the back of the eye—the retina—can predict a person’s risk of stroke as accurately as traditional risk factors alone, but without the need for multiple invasive lab tests, finds research published online in the journal Heart.  The fingerprint, comprising 29 indicators of vascular health, is a practical and readily implementable approach that is particularly well suited for primary healthcare and low-resource settings, conclude the researchers. Stroke affects around 100 million people around the globe and ...

Circulation problems in the brain’s seat of memory linked to mild cognitive impairment in older adults

2025-01-14
Mild cognitive impairment is linked to blood vessel dysfunction in the brain’s temporal lobes — the seat of memory — according to a new USC-led study. The findings, seen in people with and without signs of amyloid buildup in the brain, suggest that microvascular trouble may be an important, early biomarker for dementia as well as a potential target for therapy. The research, involving scientists from multiple universities, appears in the journal Neurology. “We’re studying ...

Oregon State receives $11.9 million from Defense Department to enhance health of armed forces

Oregon State receives $11.9 million from Defense Department to enhance health of armed forces
2025-01-13
PORTLAND, Ore. – The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded up to $11.9 million to Oregon State University to invent new drug delivery technologies for protecting members of the military from a range of health threats in combat areas. Once designed, developed and tested, the technologies could also be applied as needed within the general public, said OSU College of Pharmacy nanomedicine researcher Gaurav Sahay, the project leader. The award comes from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through its Hermes program, whose goal is finding new ways to deliver therapeutic agents throughout the body with exceptional ...

Leading cancer clinician, researcher Dr. Jenny Chang to lead Houston Methodist Academic Institute

Leading cancer clinician, researcher Dr. Jenny Chang to lead Houston Methodist Academic Institute
2025-01-13
Esteemed cancer clinician-scientist Jenny Chang, M.D., MBBChir, MHCM, has been chosen to lead the Houston Methodist Academic Institute. She will serve as executive vice president, president and CEO, and chief academic officer. In her more than 15 years at Houston Methodist, Chang helped transform the Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center into one of the top-20 ranked cancer centers in the country. Chang, the Emily Herrmann Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research, was selected following a national search and succeeds H. Dirk Sostman, M.D., FACR, who will retire next month after two decades of leadership at Houston Methodist. Chang’s ...

Engineering quantum entanglement at the nanoscale

Engineering quantum entanglement at the nanoscale
2025-01-13
Physicists have spent more than a century measuring and making sense of the strange ways that photons, electrons, and other subatomic particles interact at extremely small scales. Engineers have spent decades figuring out how to take advantage of these phenomena to create new technologies. In one such phenomenon, called quantum entanglement, pairs of photons become interconnected in such a way that the state of one photon instantly changes to match the state of its paired photon, no matter how far apart they are.  Nearly 80 years ago, Albert Einstein referred to this phenomenon as "spooky action at a distance." Today, entanglement is the subject of research ...

Researchers develop breakthrough one-step flame retardant for cotton textiles

2025-01-13
Although extremely flammable, cotton is one of the most commonly used textiles due to its comfort and breathable nature. However, in a single step, researchers from Texas A&M University can reduce the flammability of cotton using a polyelectrolyte complex coating. The coating can be tailored for various textiles, such as clothing or upholstery, and scaled using the common pad-dry coating process, which is suitable for industrial applications. This technology can help to save property and lives on a large scale.     “Many of the materials in our ...

New study identifies how blood vessel dysfunction can worsen chronic disease

New study identifies how blood vessel dysfunction can worsen chronic disease
2025-01-13
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have uncovered how specialized cells surrounding small blood vessels, known as perivascular cells, contribute to blood vessel dysfunction in chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and fibrosis. The findings, published today in Science Advances, could change how these diseases are treated. The study, led by Luiz Bertassoni, D.D.S., Ph.D., founding director of the Knight Cancer Precision Biofabrication Hub and a professor at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and ...

Picking the right doctor? AI could help

2025-01-13
Years ago, as she sat in waiting rooms, Maytal Saar-Tsechansky began to wonder how people chose a good doctor when they had no way of knowing a doctor’s track record on accurate diagnoses. Talking to other patients, she found they sometimes based choices on a physician’s personality or even the quality of their office furniture. “I realized all these signals people are using are just not the right ones,” says Saar-Tsechansky, professor of information, risk, and operations management at Texas McCombs. “We were operating in complete darkness, like there’s no transparency on these things.” In new research, she uses artificial ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Why older women are embracing the open road
Older women are challenging traditional views of aging, embarking on solo road trips in search of adventure, personal growth and new horizons.