Matron Lit: A Twenty-First Century Voice?

Matron lit gives over-forties women a voice within contemporary popular fictional texts that they have previously been denied. This genre began to emerge around the turn of the twenty-first century as a sub-genre of chick lit and is now firmly entrenched in the mainstream of popular fiction. Contemporary popular fiction aimed at the baby-boom market has established its readership steadily. For the first time older female readers of popular fiction have heroines to whom they can relate. Matron lit discusses the gains and losses that are encountered by ageing women in Western society. Cultural attitudes about ageing and gender operate together to marginalise older women. Matron lit contributes to the debate around ageing and gender by reporting and exposing gendered and ageist discourses.