For years, women have been quietly taught to expect mental decline as they age. Slower thinking. Less clarity. More second-guessing. But a major 2025 study tells a very different story — one that’s both relieving and  empowering. Researchers led by Gilles E. Gignac  at the University of Western Australia , published in the journal Intelligence , analyzed decades of data across 16 cognitive and personality traits  to understand how the mind actually changes across adulthood .

For so many women, especially between 45 and 65, the quiet truth is this: we’ve spent decades being everything for everyone else.

I’ll be the first to say it: Nobody really prepares you for what happens when your hormones start shifting after 40. One minute you’re...