One essential demographic is sometimes neglected in continuing debates about the progress women have made – and still need to make – in the workplace. Meet the Queenagers, women in their forties who began their careers in the 1980s, when the “glass ceiling” was first discovered and breaking through it became a viable, albeit extremely tough, ambition for ambitious, corporate women. Meet the Queenagers, women in their mid-forties who started their careers during that time. Several of these senior female executives are currently quitting their jobs. They disprove the idea that one size fits all for every stage of a professional woman’s life by rejecting unsatisfying positions.
It is essential to take into account what queenagers have accomplished and how the playing field has changed since they first made inroads into a male-dominated commercial sector in order to comprehend the obstacles that women now face. The ages of queen-agers range from around 65 to as low as 45. Because they are either past the child-rearing stage or opted not to have children in the first place, these women often enjoy reasonably high wages and a great deal of freedom in their current decisions.
The phrase “Queenagers” was created by Noon, a website devoted to this demographic, which also refers to the group as being in “the age of opportunity.”
The phrase “Queenagers” was created by Noon, a website devoted to this demographic, which also refers to the group as being in “the age of opportunity.” Queenagers enjoy a high level of autonomy and expenditure, in contrast to their younger counterparts who are giving birth to children and raising families, with childcare eating up every spare dollar. But independence is what they value most. “The important thing to understand about this cohort of women is that they are pioneers, the first generation of women to work all the way through,” says Eleanor Mills, Noon’s founder.
The question at hand is whether a new generation of female executives will fare equally well. What more can the successful queenager do to support and mentor younger women as they work towards their own successes? It often returns to a crucial stage for women: how to manage the years spent balancing jobs with parenthood – and the frequently enormous financial costs required to do so in a culture where males, on average, still earn much more than women. According to the International Labour Organisation, women still make, on average, 80% of what men make.
Even with the most recent recovery to pre-pandemic participation levels, the number of women entering the labour has been stagnant since the turn of the century. Pay is also the main cause of this stagnation. Specifically, think about mothers and carers. The Pregnancy Workers’ Fairness Act, which updated protections for pregnant employees such as breaks or remote work, became federal law in the US only this year, which strikes us as extraordinary. In the UK, the Pregnant Then Screwed campaign successfully sued the government in 2021 for its discriminatory treatment of pregnant women’s income taxation.
Childcare expenses consume a living wage. Despite the fact that there is a direct link between the benefits of early childhood education and labour force participation, the UK has the highest rates in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Iceland consistently leads the list. Both the logistics and the cost of child care hinder working women and their families. Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University and author of Career and Family: Women’s Century-long Journey to Equity, writes of a study she conducted on careers of male and female MBA graduates at the University of Chicago Booth University between 1990 and 2006. As she explains in her book “we know from an in-depth analysis of these MBA histories that the growing gap in earnings doesn’t appear randomly. Rather, it emerges with the arrival of children. Children and the ensuing caregiving responsibilities are the main contributors to lesser job experience.”
For queenagers, flexibility is 16 times more significant than the status
Noon discovered that for women between the ages of 45 and 60, flexibility is 16 times more significant than status, far surpassing the value they place on obtaining the corner office or a fancy title as a reward for years of service. According to Mills, many people saw starting their own business or consulting as a method to achieve the freedom and independence they desired. This was especially true for those who had spent several decades working for corporations and had the financial means to strike out on their own.
How therefore might a queenager assist younger workers who are now juggling the demands of working, possibly starting families, and competing for advancement? They may only need to be assured that they can also get there. Or it can mean dedicating effort to harder-fought campaigns like Pregnant Then Screwed and joining boards and organisations of corporations to advance policy reforms.
There are also hopeful signs emerging. One of them is that, in the end, the goals that men and women have for their careers and work experiences in 2023 are not all that dissimilar. With the caveat that more than half of both men and women said they can’t always express themselves freely, a recent survey of 4,500 workers across five countries on Belonging in the Workplace by research firm Opinium found that men and women are neck and neck at around 70% feeling a sense of belonging. The desire to discuss how they feel about work unites men and women in one respect. Let’s all of us – queenagers and beyond – make sure that discussion includes continuing to change the workplace so that it’s fair and equitable for everyone.
