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**Business Book Awards 2024: Diversity, Inclusion & Equality Book of the Year**
**The People’s Book Prize 2023/24 Shortlisted Title**
There’s one group consistently ignored in most companies’ diversity strategies, but which could be your business’s secret weapon.
Professional women over 50 are faced with a triple-whammy of discrimination: they are not male, young, or linear in their career paths. As a result, they are leaving corporate life and taking their career into their own hands. And with it, they take their abundant wisdom, energy and ambition.
Drawing on new research by Dr Lucy Ryan that fills a longstanding data gap, this book shows that assumptions about declining midlife motivation and energy just aren’t true for women and reveals how you can retain and develop this invaluable talent pool with a better understanding of their challenges and a few simple changes.
Professional women have transformed our world. And women over 50 are deserving of your attention and ready to step up in your business.
Dr Lucy Ryan is a leadership coach, consultant, author and passionate advocate for women’s professional development. Her doctoral research project explored the phenomenon of midlife for professional women, a long-standing data gap, and she works with companies internationally to unlock the potential of this key talent pool.
It’s hard to disagree with anything in this book. It’s clear. It’s pithy. It’s enraging. - Christina Patterson, The Sunday Times
Dr Lucy Ryan is a leadership coach, consultant, author and passionate advocate for women’s professional development. Her doctoral research project explored the phenomenon of midlife for professional women, a long-standing data gap, and she works with companies internationally to unlock the potential of this key talent pool.
Preface:
Jane’s Story: Collision and coincidence.
Introduction
- Embarking on this journey
Part 1 – What’s the problem?
Chapter 1
Midlife: the forgotten age
- Crisis, what crisis?
- The diversity conundrum
- Lies, damn lies and statistics
- Where have all the (older) women gone?
Diane’s Story: The creative collaborator
Chapter 2
Midlife Myths in a man-made world
#1 It’s all old news (and solved)
#2They don't want it
#3 We’ve got one, thanks
#4 It’s all downhill from here
#5 They’re mad, bad and sad
Sarah’s Story: Going to the festival
Chapter 3
Looking back to look forwards
- A brief history of female anatomy and ‘inferiority’
- Proving the gender difference
- Medicalising the older woman
- Female stereotyping and leadership
Niamh’s story: Stepping up or out
Part II – Ageing in the workplace
Chapter 4
Strangers within
- Feeding the food chain
- The power of language
- Acting young
- Silver fox meets silver vixen
Joelle’s story: the 50-minute make-up workout
Chapter 5
Critical collisions
- The midlife ‘smash-up’
- Losing control and running on empty
- Who Cares?
- Empty nesting and other syndromes
Nicki’s story: To stop, to pause, to change
Chapter 6
Menopause matters
- Facts and frictions
- Symptoms and the lived experience
- HRT and other solutions
Jo’s story: Dressing for the Board
Chapter 7
The Ticking Clock
- Facing loss and finding purpose
- Avoiding the ‘nasties’
- Existential angst and the big M
Frankie’s story: What is it worth?
Chapter 8
Motivation and Midlife
- The Motivation Myth
- The imprint of old science
- Raring and ready to… retire?
Claire’s story: Stepping out to step up
Part III – Rewriting the rules: alternative perspectives
Chapter 9
Mirror, mirror: on the other hand
- Energy ambition and age
Cyn’s story: Bucking the trend - Resilient midlife women
Brenda’s story: Braver, stronger, fitter - Post-menopausal zest!
Lori’s story: Feeding all parts of my life
Chapter 10
Reconfiguring success: the organisation’s perspective
- Tackling assumption
Simon’s story - The flexible midlife workplace
Steph’s story - Creative collaboration across the generations
Geraint’s story
Chapter 11
A positive agenda for change
- For policy makers
- For employers
- For women
- For men
- For you
Additional Reading and resources
References
Acknowledgements
Index.