Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject

“Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject to the idea of what feminine is or how you should look or how you should behave.” — Gloria Steinem

Thus spoke Gloria Steinem, the fierce voice of a generation, the torchbearer of women’s liberation. In these words, she reveals not only the wisdom of years but the transformation that comes with them. She speaks of freedom — not the freedom of youth that runs wild and unknowing, but the deeper freedom that only age can bestow, the freedom that comes from having faced judgment and outlived it. For the young are bound not by chains of iron, but by the unseen bonds of expectation: what it means to be feminine, how one must look, how one must behave to be accepted by a world that watches and weighs. But time, that silent teacher, loosens these binds one by one, until the soul stands unadorned, sovereign, and unafraid.

When Steinem speaks of femininity, she speaks not of softness or appearance, but of the cage built by centuries — the scripts handed down to women about beauty, obedience, and worth. In youth, the voices of others are loud: the mother’s caution, the lover’s desire, the world’s demand to smile. The young woman learns to mold herself to please the eye, to speak gently, to shrink herself to fit the world’s idea of grace. But with the passing of years, the voices grow fainter, and another voice rises — her own. The freedom of age is this: the shedding of false selves, the quiet knowledge that one’s worth has never lived in the gaze of others.

Consider the story of Eleanor Roosevelt, who began life shy and self-conscious, haunted by her own reflection. She lived in a world that demanded she be silent, ornamental, compliant. Yet as the years unfolded, she grew into a force that reshaped nations. It was not youth that gave her strength, but the long journey through sorrow and wisdom that taught her to stand alone. By the time she became the voice of human rights, she no longer cared how she looked or whether she fit the mold of femininity. She had transcended it. She had entered the realm of freedom that Steinem describes — the freedom of authenticity, earned only by time.

In youth, we chase approval; in age, we seek truth. The freedom of age is not born from rebellion but from understanding — the understanding that to live under others’ definitions is to live half a life. The young are more subject to the idea of who they should be, not because they are weak, but because they are still learning to know themselves. The elder, having weathered heartbreak and failure, having seen dreams burn and be rebuilt, knows that the world’s opinions are as fleeting as wind. What remains is the self — and to embrace it fully is the purest liberation.

The ancients knew this too. The Greeks spoke of Sophrosyne — the wisdom that comes with balance, with harmony between the inner and outer worlds. Only through experience could one reach it. The young maiden, radiant yet uncertain, becomes in time the matron, rooted and wise. For as beauty fades, dignity deepens; as charm wanes, clarity awakens. Thus, age is not decline, but ascension — a rising above illusion. Steinem’s words echo this timeless truth: that freedom is not the gift of youth but the harvest of endurance.

And so, let us not mourn the passing years, but honor them. Each wrinkle is a chapter written in courage; each gray hair, a thread of wisdom. To grow older is to grow truer — to step beyond the mirrors and measures of society and to finally be. The freedom of age is the freedom to speak one’s truth without trembling, to walk one’s own path without apology, to define one’s beauty, one’s voice, one’s self. It is not a loss, but a homecoming.

Practical counsel for those who walk the path:

• Guard your youth, but revere your age, for it is where the spirit ripens.

• Question every standard the world imposes — beauty, behavior, belonging — and find your own.

• Learn early what age will one day teach you: that authenticity is more radiant than perfection.

• Speak your truth now, so that when you grow older, your voice will already be free.

For as Gloria Steinem teaches, time does not take your power — it reveals it. When the illusions of youth fall away, when the fear of judgment fades, the woman stands whole at last — unbound, unmasked, and magnificent. This is the freedom of age: to live not as the world expects, but as the soul commands.