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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
This book is based on research in the UK but has application for the United States too. The author talked in depth to women executives to blow up the false narratives on why women leave organizations at the top of their game. Often the mythology is that women want freedom to strike out on their own or are in the "sandwich" generation and need to take care of children and aging parents. What organizations don't look at typically are the systemic challenges in organizations that keep women from achieving their potential...There is a section on Menopause which is critically important and only recently has been getting focus in the news and among legislators. I encourage leaders and HR professionals to read this book to start examining the systemic barriers for women in organizations - GoodReads
'(a) data and evidence-based guide for getting through the fragility and messy-ness of midlife careers which gave me confidence and assurance that the longing for change I was experiencing, after a long corporate career, wasn’t just me! Ceri Hughes, LinkedIn
'...what an absolute triumph of a book...Seriously good, seriously thought provoking and seriously worth a read if you are a midlife women or are in an organisation wondering how you can support them, get the best out of them, retain them for longer.'- LinkedIn
I recommend the book particularly for anyone in DEI, HR, Recruitment, but to be honest, I think everyone else should read it too! Isn't it such a brilliant name for a book on this topic? I just love that headline - revolting women! - LinkedIn
At last someone is articulating my own experience in the workplace and giving it a compassionate and powerful formulation and suggestions for change- really helpful. ...Thank you Lucy Ryan for putting together this impressive piece of work. - Amazon
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.