HALF of women have a fall-back partner on standby who has always fancied them, in case their current relationship turns sour
...The survey of 1,000 women also found Plan B is also likely to be someone whom she has known for around seven years, who will be 'ready and waiting' because of 'unfinished business'....

...Furthermore, around one in ten women said their Plan B had already confessed his undying love, while one in five said they were confident he would 'drop everything' for her, if she asked him to.

Slightly more than four in ten said they had got to know the man whilst they were with their partner, while a similar percentage said he was 'on the scene' long before.

Around one in four women who have a back-up plan have feelings as strong for him as they do for their other half.

Incredibly, 12 per cent went as far as to admit their feelings were 'stronger' for Plan B, and close to seven in ten admitted they are currently in contact with him.

But despite the secrecy involved in having a close friend or ex to turn to, around half of the women who took part in the poll said their other half was aware of the 'third party'.

Of those, one in five said they were able to joke about it, but one in three said their man was 'uncomfortable' discussing him.

One in four admitted their current partner had met their Plan B, while one in five admitted he was a friend of the man in her life....

Why do women age so fast in their fifties? FEMAIL investigates why gender age gap problems increase the older you get
...He was 49 and I was 54 at the time.

I've always looked young for my age and when we met I didn't look five years older than my partner. However, as the years slipped by, well, I did.

And then, as time seemed to slow down for him, it somehow sped up for me. The truth is I suddenly feel as if I'm ageing faster than my partner and now that age gap shows.

We met through online dating. He was one of the few men in my age group who deigned to go out with me. Most of the fiftysomethings, even those with comb-overs and anoraks, were looking for bendy 35-year-olds willing to squander the last of their good years on an over-the-hill couch potato...

‘Our teenage daughter dumped her boyfriend - and we’re heartbroken’
The last time I sat across a kitchen table from a heartbroken teenage boy, I was just a girl myself, and I was the one doing the heart-breaking. Thirty years on, I find myself in the same situation – only this time the distraught boy in question is in love with my 18-year-old daughter Katie*, who has decided she doesn’t want to be with him any more.

Over the last year, I’ve grown to love this boy – who sits before me now with his head in his hands, looking for advice as to how to win her back – as a son. My husband feels the same way. Alex*, also 18, is kind, hard-working, respectful and good-looking. He adores our daughter and wants to keep her happy and safe.

What more could you want for your girl? But for Katie, what he offers isn’t enough. Safe is for later. For now she wants excitement and freedom. However much we adore him, for her he isn’t ‘The One’....

This University of Oregon Study on Feminizing Glaciers Might Make You Root for Trump
...Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change. However, the relationships among gender, science, and glaciers – particularly related to epistemological questions about the production of glaciological knowledge – remain understudied. This paper thus proposes a feminist glaciology framework with four key components: 1) knowledge producers; (2) gendered science and knowledge; (3) systems of scientific domination; and (4) alternative representations of glaciers. Merging feminist postcolonial science studies and feminist political ecology, the feminist glaciology framework generates robust analysis of gender, power, and epistemologies in dynamic social-ecological systems, thereby leading to more just and equitable science and human-ice interactions. ...