What are the main challenges regularly faced by women at work? What do women in the second halves of their career have to say about what is happening in the workplace? What still needs to change to make it a level playing field? Our survey results and the insights from our recent focus groups are in. So what did they have to say?

When we launched the Nonpareil Network in July 2021 we did so with the aim of bringing like minded professional women in the second halves of their career together. Based on conversations with our own connections we felt that once women reached middle age, many started to feel less visible and less valued, despite holding senior and management roles.

To ensure our content was relevant to working women, we wanted to test our thinking and so launched our very first survey in the October, asking professional women about their experiences at work. Despite having only just launched the Nonpareil Network, we received over 200 responses from women, predominantly aged between 35 to 54. We then held a series of focus groups to delve deeper into the experiences of women. Last week we shared the findings in our first online networking event and today for those unable to make last week we are sharing some of the results here too. The full results will be published in a paper.

Our survey and focus groups revealed just how big a problem imposter syndrome is ….

As a women, most of us regularly feel the dreaded imposter syndrome or have periods of self doubt. This finding was supported by the discussions in the focus groups. Unfortunately it seems that sometimes we are our own worst enemies as despite being in senior roles we give ourselves less credit and continually question our abilities. It seems we are terrible for comparing ourselves to others too.

Women find balancing work life and home life the most difficult challenge…

55% of survey respondents find juggling work with other commitments an ongoing issue. The discussion in the focus groups and our online event also highlighted this as a concern with many reporting that this had worsened since the pandemic as they had to juggle home-working with home schooling. There was also a view than you were constantly considered to be online and available which was proving stressful. It was also felt that most of the care responsibilities typically fall to the woman.

Many talked of the lack of flexible working opportunities with 25% of survey respondents saying there was a lack of flexible working opportunities available. Our focus groups highlighted that some women had had to really fight to get flexible working. It was also raised that some women without children had been questioned as to why they wanted to pursue flexible working when they had no caring responsibilities.

Overall it was felt that the situation was improving, but experiences were not consistent across different organisations and generally things weren’t changing quickly enough. Those participants who were working flexibly also talked about doing a full time job in part time hours and how challenging that was. There was also a view that you were considered as being less ambitious or committed to your work if you worked part time or flexible hours.

We are still putting up with too many women’s stereotypes and labels…

Of those women surveyed as much as 78% have experienced either sexism, ageism or both at work. This ranged from sexist comments (43%) or discriminatory jokes (40%). They also reported that assumptions had been made about their ambitions following having had children (41%) to comments being made about their likelihood to have children. As many as 21% also reported that they had encountered sexual harassment at work.

In our focus groups the women attending talked about the labels that we have for women such as ‘working mums’ and ‘female-preneur ’, when the same labels aren’t used for men. They also spoke about how once many of them reached forty or after they had had children it was assumed that they didn’t want to further progress in their careers or that they didn’t want to learn and develop. They spoke about how as they got older development opportunities were typically prioritised for younger staff and that they were sometimes made to feel like dinosaurs.

Some of the women also shared their experiences of going through the menopause and said that they hadn’t received enough support at work from both male and female bosses. Although they recognised that awareness was improving and employers were starting to put in place more support now.

But the outlook is more optimistic…

Whilst the findings of our survey were in many ways negative, the purpose of this survey was to clarify and highlight the challenges faced by working women. Despite this, of those surveyed 77.5% were either satisfied or very satisfied in their roles which is very positive.

The discussions at the focus groups highlighted that whilst there were still issues and challenges, many of them felt that things were starting to change for the better as awareness around these issues was being shared more. Many employers had already launched initiatives to support those going through the menopause for example.

The focus group attendees and the attendees at last weeks event also spoke about how we as women need to be more proactive in making the landscape change. Suggestions to make a difference to both the current and to future generations included exploring mentoring opportunities, sharing the challenges we face and raising further awareness and by working together and learning from other organisations about what works and what doesn’t.

At the Nonpareil Network we are committed to working with professional women in their second halves of their careers to make the workplace a better place for women and to help women feel more confident and able to succeed. We hope you will join us at our next networking event in March so we can work together to make a difference.

Do these findings relate with your own experiences? We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

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Helen is an ILM 7 Executive Coach and Strategy Consultant. She runs her own consultancy, helping organisations and businesses develop strategies to differentiate themselves and grow successfully. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.