When I was a child my Dad would often say to me ‘there’s no such word as can’t’ when I said I could not do something. At the time I did not really understand what he meant and thought that he was simply correcting my grammar, in that I should be saying ‘cannot’. It was only when I got older that I fully understood what he meant…
An article on the Mail online claims women bosses lack personality because they feel pressure to be super human. This is in line with a blog I wrote last week for We Are The City website called How True To Yourself Are You At Work where I wrote about women not being their authentic self in the workplace.
I regularly get approached by women in their forties and fifties who think that it is too late for them to change their career and pursue something that they are passionate about. My response to them is always the same, you are not too old to make a career change and to find something more fulfilling. For many women making a mid-life career change is something that they would love to do but don’t have the courage to do it.
The reported comments by former MP Anne Widdecombe in the Daily Mail this week that female MPs are not victims of sexism but are useless has fuelled a lot of debate. Ms. Widdecombe dismisses that parliament is biased against women and that both sexes are ‘roughed’ up during debates.
According to the Labour Force Survey Q4 2012, 40% of public sector workers are women aged 40 or older. We are all aware that there have been significant cuts in public sector employment over the past 3 years with considerable more to come.
A recent article on the BBC News talked about women finding success in their forties by starting out as entrepreneurs. The article talks about how once women reach their forties, they are confident to find their own path. The full article can be read here.
This is really encouraging to see as choosing to work for yourself can be very rewarding and fulfilling…
In my recent survey ‘Pursuing Your Passion at Mid-Life’, 87% of employed women said that fear prevented them from pursuing a career they loved to some degree or another.
Women struggle more than men with life after retirement according to an article in the Daily Mail. Women are more likely to worry about lack of income and social life and 80% feel they have no purpose in life after quitting work.
An 88 year old employee of the supermarket chain Asda is quoted this week as saying that she returned to work after retiring “so that she had something with purpose to do”. I think that this is incredible and it just goes to show that no matter what your age, it is never too late to find purpose in your life.
Marissa Mayer the CEO for Yahoo recently defended her to decision to ban home working for Yahoo employees. Her justification is that while people are more productive when they’re alone, they are more collaborative and innovative when they’re together.
