AIBU to wonder where the women over 50 are in the workforce?

[Waferbiscuit]

I'm over 50 and I've noticed a very obvious trend of women leaving the workforce at around my age. Throughout my 40s I saw many women my age move to part-time, but they were still visible. Now I go into meetings (I attends lots of cross-org plus city-wide/region-wide meetings) and I never see women my age or older.

Anecdotally the four women my age who I worked alongside have all left their roles to do a bit of consultancy work or stop working altogether.

Is it just my sector or is this trend something other people are seeing in their line of work? Are women at 50 leaving the workforce because of caring responsibilities? Of course not all women have caring responsibilities so are they leaving because their other half (if they have a partner) makes more money? Or is the workforce just breaking people, so by 50 women stand up and say 'I've had enough' ??? Genuinely curious.

My first thought was menopause when i read your title. If I weren't HRT'd up to the gills then I'd be a weepy mess with a brain full of cotton wool.

I noticed that a lot of women got shoved out of the workforce in their fifties. It wasn't that they wanted to go. It's just that their jobs were disappeared on them. There are ways that organizations have of making working conditions impossible for women to hang on, by humiliating them or forcing them to do tasks that are impossible or unethical, by giving them bad reviews, etc., even though they had been successful workers with long careers. I saw it happen to a number of talented women. It is much easier for companies to hire young workers for less money, and they can find ways to get around laws that are supposed to protect older workers. In the end, it's their job, it's not your job.
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I hope I'm not still working when I'm 50!

Anecdotally the four women my age who I worked alongside have all left their roles to do a bit of consultancy work or stop working altogether

Im in my 50s and had no intention of spending all my good years working. Retiring at 67 - No way. I'd be too tired.

I work 12 hours weekly in my job, as a choice. Im self-employed alongside, what I do is niche and pays well ebough. That takes up 1 or 2 days a week

My DCs are grown up and self-sufficient, its my time now to enjoy life and do more of the things I like.

So perhaps the women you know are similar. Although friends in my age group Id say its an equal split in terms of those who work and those who've taken early retirement/stopped working for other reasons.

There are several over 50 in my work place, one over 60 and one 59. There are a few of us heading towards 50 too.

I doubt I'll have the opportunity to retire early but I think I might be struggling with what I do at 67!

52. Just been made redundant.

I’m 55, NHS nurse specialist. I’m one of the few in my hospital, working in a cancer specialist area. Most of my contemporaries have left in the past year, taking early retirement, because they’ve had enough. Previously, they were adamant they’d stay until state pension age.
For them, it’s a mixture of the pressures of COVID, poor management, and the general awful morale in NHS. I’d join them if I could afford to.

In my team I'm the only one there under 40. The oldest is 54 and she's moving to 4 days a week next year instead of 5. The manager is 48 and will probably be there for a while as she has shares in the business.

I'm 31 and unless my circumstances change dramatically I'll be working until state pension age. I'm single with no intention of living with a man again so my income is necessary to pay for my home.

I am 50 and still working FT in a senior position. Peri is attritional though and I find stress and anxiety which I have not really suffered before makes work very hard and far less enjoyable.

3 close friends at the same age and stage have just given up though - 2 lawyers and an accountant. It is a brutal time of life and o have to say I had zero appreciation of this before I experienced it.

i am not planning on disappearing either, just glad that I can't be got rid of in the CS.

That was the main reason the CS appealed to me to be honest. I know I work hard but that never made my job safe before. I'd been made redundant a few times in 14-15 years of working. Then after a 10 year break looking after dc, I struggled to get an interview. I realised how many times in my youth I thought I'd been hired for my abilities but actually I'd only been hired for my youth.

I do not have a particular qualification though. Obviously this awful phenomenon is less present in industries where women can say ''i trained as an accountant. I am an accountant''.

@Waferbiscuit

Interesting and good to see that there are lots of women my/our age working in other sectors.

Some friends have suggested the 'patriarchal' work structure/environment (that was created by and likely benefits men more) wears women down over time - it may be that too.

You're ignoring quite a bit, I think!

Patriarchal society or not. many women over 50 choose to change their working roles, progress their careers etc. I would imagine I would be classed as one of those that 'disappeared'. I left teaching and am now self employed. 56 and still working, just doing it differently. Shall be doing that for at least another 10 years!

I’m (just) 50. I have to say I’ve taken jobs to fit around my family/personal life, not the other way around. I’ve never been a big ‘career’ person esp since I’ve had my DCs, one of whom is still at school. Most people I work with atm are over 40/50. Not high flyers though.
I will prob carry on in a p/t role for 10 years or so and then dh will have retired and we can enjoy life/travel before we are too decrepit (hopefully the DCs will have their own independent earning lives by then too…).

Not RTFT but menopause is a big part of it. Some women really suffer and no allowances are made (after all, the default human is male, and workplaces are set up for men). Some employers are now introducing menopause policies (including my own) and realising that it is crazy to lose so many well qualified and experienced women. So hopefully things will change as those of you in your early 40s and below approach 50.

General ageism is a factor too. Although being ageist is unlawful, in practice it is difficult to prove and employers want "dynamic" employees (code for young and willing to work all hours) of either sex. So if you are over 50, forget it. That also needs to change.

A more positive reason is that women in their 50s have adult children and have paid off their mortgages so can work less and enjoy life more. They may work part-time or freelance.

Quit teaching to live on my savings at the age of 52. The job was killing me and it was being made quite clear to me that I was too expensive and had younger colleagues hungry for my role.

The mortgage was paid and I could feel not just the mental toll, but the increasing physical impact on my body as I was getting older. I decided that life was too short to keep wishing time away until the summer holidays so I quit.

I'm much happier now - savings are depleting, but you can't put a price on well being.

Older teachers are not valued in many schools. I couldn't wait to get out.

I'm 45, in the Civil Service and definitely one of the older ones in my department. There's only one woman there older than me and she's the next level up. Some women in their fifties have made it to DD and DG level but certainly not in my work area. Everyone is so young, lots of higher up colleagues aren't even 30. I joined at 44 after a lifetime of "career" instability due to previously undiagnosed ADHD. Now I'm accepted (to a point) for who I am but I won't kid myself that I'll progress further.

@Waferbiscuit

Despite this I have been told I should look for another job because things will get worse for me ie. I will be performance managed out. I am a lone parent to school Age children. I want to stay in my job but because I am not ambitious I am being forced out.

Yikes @Stopsnowing -- did your manager really say that you will be managed out - to your face??

Menopause can be considered a disability so they need to be very very careful.

Unfortunately you can't combine protected characteristics under the Equality Act - ie sex and age - but you can use the disability characteristic.

Mid fifties and left due to caring responsibilities. Will have to work again once those responsibilities are over but hope I won't be unemployable by then.

@knackeredcat

I'm 45, in the Civil Service and definitely one of the older ones in my department. There's only one woman there older than me and she's the next level up. Some women in their fifties have made it to DD and DG level but certainly not in my work area. Everyone is so young, lots of higher up colleagues aren't even 30. I joined at 44 after a lifetime of "career" instability due to previously undiagnosed ADHD. Now I'm accepted (to a point) for who I am but I won't kid myself that I'll progress further.

This has been my experience of joining the civil service as a career change too.

I’d imagine that a disproportionate number of women in their 50s are falling out of the labour market because of caring responsibilities for elderly relatives. Women who took time out for childcare (and therefore didn’t build a career throughout their lives) are especially vulnerable to this.

I took a big step back at 50, coincidentally work was closing, final salary pension which at that time was obtainable at 50. Great payout which paid off my mortgage.

I honestly think I'd be dead if I was still doing that job now, it was so stressful and demanding, I managed a group of people, of which half turned up to work but tried to do as little as possible.

Accountancy and finance was my thing, I did part time and still do, avoiding the big responsibility jobs.

Lots of women over 50 in mental health nursing. I'll be one of them in 5 years.

I am 52 and still here working away. My boss is also around my age.

Colleague of around the same age has recently retired early because she was burnt out from caring for her mum who recently died from vascular dementia and she was also struggling with work pressures combined with menopause symptoms. Obviously also because she could afford it!

If I could afford it I would be retiring tomorrow!

This is really depressing me. I'm 48 and I'd love to be able to think of retiring at 50. But I have a child still in KS1 and will have a mortgage until 67. Stupid life choices.

I'm 48 and contemplating a career change.
I've spent 25 years in my sector and have burnout. I don't want to engage in any more away days, team meetings or office politics. Fed up of being on the office treadmill. Want yo be my oen boss.

My mother is on her own and has growing health issues too, so this is also a factor.

Still have a big chunk of mortgage left though. Considering freelance. Trying to build savings and look at contigency planning as it's a scary prospect.

NHS nurse here. All my colleagues well over 50 (>55 years) have flexi retired so only work 1 or 2 12 hour shifts a week. This amounts to all of 3 people ! Most of the staff are 20 - 30s, a few mid to late 40s, very early 50s. They are sadly going to have to work late into their sixties due to pension changes. Nursing is a physically and emotionally challenging job, very different to working in IT or banking possibly ? Most
clinically based nurses are pretty much burnt out by the time we reach our mid 50s.

Boomers and early Gen-Xers are more likely to have paid off their mortgage and have plenty of savings by the time they're in their mid-50s, plus some still have final salary pensions. Only an idiot would stay in work if they don't have to.