Last week saw another online networking session for the Nonpareil Network, with lively discussions, interesting insights and a great opportunity to take time out for reflection. This time, we focused on how midlife women are the fastest growing demographic in the workplace and we explored how we are uniquely placed to influence change to make the workplace a better place.

We kicked things off by looking at the changing landscape, with women over 50 being the fastest growing group in the workforce - a noticeable change that we’ve started to see during our careers. Despite this, many women in this demographic tell us that they still feel invisible at work. This is definitely something that needs to change!

Positive change is coming…

We looked at some of the statistics and trends that show the change in the proportion of women working compared to men, along with part-time versus full-time working, the gender pay gap and the percentage of women on the Board in FTSE-100 companies. As often seems to be the case, we are seeing some positive changes, but they’re happening slowly and there’s still a long way to go.

Drivers of the changes are both economic and social. Some of the things we discussed included: - 

• Increase in state pension age for women

• Economic pressures meaning that families surviving on a single income is a thing of the past

• Changes in attitudes towards women returning to work after having children

• Changes to ‘traditional’ gender roles with men taking on more childcare and domestic responsibilities

• More women remaining childfree by choice or by circumstance

Last but by no means least was the fact that women want and now believe that they deserve to have more fulfilling lives and to be offered the opportunities that have always existed for their male counterparts. This really started to come through in the 1980s and 1990s when we began to see more equality around education with women becoming more likely to attend university and less gender bias in the subjects that were taught in schools.

We’ve all got our own stories

As Co-Founders, we each shared our own personal experiences - good and bad - of being midlife women who remain committed to our careers, together with some of the assumptions and prejudices we have faced. So did our attendees, and there were lots of differences but also a lot of similarities.

Moving into breakout sessions, the group had an opportunity to network and get to know each other, discussing the qualities that women in, or approaching, midlife can bring to the workplace - perhaps compared with our younger selves or our male colleagues.

Midlife women have an awesome blend of skills

We had some great discussions that yielded a wealth of positive attributes amongst our demographic: practicality, action-focus, being the voice of reason, empathy, rationality, kindness and tolerance were just some of the things that we felt we brought to the table. We also discussed the fact that we are generally more confident now, and more comfortable speaking out when something is not right - for example if we see inequality or hear inappropriate comments being made (something that we agreed we are far less tolerant of as we become more mature). We’re all pretty good at juggling too as we manage our multiple work/life commitments and transfer this into the workplace by being good at multi-tasking.

There was a lively discussion about mentoring too and the fact that we’re generally good at spotting talent in our teams and beyond and will often informally mentor our colleagues as we want to make a difference and create a better future for others, with more opportunities and fewer barriers than we have faced in our own careers. 

Just briefly, we touched on some of the barriers we still face to career success (we didn’t dwell on these as our events are very much about positive action!) and then moved on to discuss as a group how we can use our unique qualities to overcome these - both for ourselves in the present and for future generations of women in the workplace. 

We’re focused on positive action and making a difference

There were some great ideas, with everyone very keen on the concept of mentoring and a consensus that we actually have a duty of care to do it, even if only informally. We also talked about ensuring we make our voices heard at the table and being decision-makers in the organisations we work in, as well as being more upfront with colleagues, particularly in terms of calling it out when we hear negative comments or assumptions being made.

Everyone committed to taking away at least one positive action of their own that they will be implementing in their own workplace and the group agreed that it had been a fantastic opportunity to take time out and reflect on some different issues from the day to day - along with meeting new women from diverse backgrounds but with very similar, positive perspectives and appetites to bring about change. 

We recently decided that all our online networking events are going to be FREE to attend. If you’d like to join us at a future session, sign up to be notified of upcoming dates.

Be sure to sign up here to be kept up to date on articles, news and up coming events.