Woman of a certain age.
It’s a phrase that makes me roll my eyes. It’s also one that’s been drilled into brilliant women for decades before they’ve come anywhere near their full potential.
Andrea Clarke wrote something in the AFR recently. She’s calling it Gen Exit. Two stories, same ending.
Story one – women being screened out by AI. Stacey Duguid, 52, spent sixteen months and hundreds of applications figuring out the problem wasn’t her experience. It was that the algorithm could see it. She’s not alone. Women over 55 are the fastest-growing group of homeless in this country.
Story two – women screening themselves out. Leaving on their own terms and taking decades of market value with them. Clarke’s line stuck with me: she just politely shows herself out. No campaign, no complaint. She’s out the door before the exit interview’s even booked.
Here’s the bit corporate Australia hasn’t clocked yet. Somewhere between $3.5 and $5 trillion is about to change hands in this country, and women are set to inherit close to two-thirds of it. The woman you restructured out at 51 may well end up better funded than your entire innovation team.
I know both of those stories. I lived a version of them.
I was Group Marketing Director for a retail brand. Three kids under 7, no family support, relying on childcare that never quite covered the hours – life was mental. I spent years pushing for a 4 day week. Challenging norms nobody else in the room wanted challenged.
Then one meeting changed everything. We have to stop the 4 day week. Others are asking for the same arrangement. You can imagine what I had to say to that.
It didn’t stop there. Next came the conversation about pay. No payrise, despite hitting every target I’d been set. The reason, when it finally came – because at the end of the day, you’re a part-time mum, Janine. Never mind the evenings and early mornings I spent negotiating with our US parent company while everyone else clocked off at 5.
My legal advisor told me I had a case.
I didn’t take it. My nervous system was shot. There was nothing left in the tank.
For some women it’s a payout, so you wait. For others it’s too much, and you walk before you’ve fully thought it through.
The second one was me.
I left with nothing sorted. No plan, no runway. Just a final paycheck and the very real thought of what the fuck am I going to do now. Fifteen years on, I’ve built my own thing from scratch. Written books I never once believed I had in me. Spoken on stages here and overseas that younger me wouldn’t have dared put her hand up for. Built a consistently profitable, 7 figure business – not by accident, and not because I had it all figured out the day I walked out.
Both are the same starting line, if you let them be.
You have the wisdom. That was never the problem. What’s missing is the structure to hold it.
So if you are a woman who is over 40 and has had the career, the accolades, and has suddenly found yourself staring down chapter two at an age where you were told you should be retiring soon – it’s okay. It’s not too late to bet on yourself and do something totally unexpected and brilliant. You are not of a certain age. That’s just a phrase that repackages ageism into something more tolerable. And if right now you need someone to hear your story and let you know you are not alone, I am all ears. Because while it might feel like the world is against you in this moment, it’s truly just opening up. The possibilities are endless. In my opinion, life doesn’t begin until 50.
This is why I do the work I do through my Elevate and Inner Circle community. Using technology to put wisdom to work, not the other way round. Building an authority-led, commercially successful business. Not run off a shoestring. Not costing you the lifestyle you’ve worked this hard for. Not another set of shackles around your ankles.
This is about building the business and the life you actually want, using decades of wisdom and smarts to serve others – and finally being paid properly for it.
Because in this age of beige and bland, of AI slop and pitch decks that all sound the same, your smarts are the advantage. Your wisdom. The years of learning that let you hold nuance, hold space, see what a model can’t. AI is the tool. Your humanness is what can’t be copied. Now is the time to use both.
Some of the women in my world have already done this work – foundations built, income steady, reputation solid – and they’re standing at the edge of what’s next. Wanting more than another course or another framework. Wanting proximity – a small room of women thinking at their level, and me, directly, in their corner.
That’s Inner Circle.
If that’s you, reply IC. I’ll tell you more.
Janine x