A glut of older women workers?

The crux of our employment dilemma, according to Beryl, lies in the post-war baby boom phenomenon. There is simply a glut of older women workers in the employment market right now, and where there's a glut of anything the product gets devalued.

"These days, all women, single or married, demand the right to retire at the same age as men – 65+ – but there are simply not enough jobs available for everyone,” says Beryl, “and I feel totally devalued because I am one of far too many older women looking for work or desperately clinging on to the jobs we have.”

"Pushing older women like me out of work, denying us a livelihood, is likely to cause a mammoth social problem - and it's happening already," says Beryl. “Those of us without working partners to financially support us are in real trouble.”

“More and more older women are facing crises in accommodation and health,” sighs Beryl, “and I predict a lot more bag ladies are going to be visible in future.”

"I feel very threatened at work by all the younger women,” says Beryl. “I need to save for the future and if I lose my job I will probably never get another one."

"There are only two other women of my age where I work," says Beryl, "and we stick together like glue because that's where our strength lies. The younger women are less likely to attack us when we provide a united front."

"If it sounds like a war," laughs Beryl, "then that's not too far off the mark."

Read more by Beryl on this issue:

traditional workplaces
empty nest mirrors

Rolling over the oldies

Geraldine is a fit and healthy 54-year old woman who expected to be in gainful employment until she was at least 65, but she’s seen younger ‘older’ women rolled over in the workplace and she’s fearful of becoming unemployed.

"Forty-up women who are in employment work under a lot of stress these days knowing that they are considered to be hogging jobs that younger workers need," explains Geraldine. "The flimsiest of excuses are given to get rid of older workers, but everyone knows what's really going on."

"Okay," concedes Geraldine, "it may be time to say Roll Over Beethoven for the women in their 60s, and possibly late 50s, too, but where do these women go? How are they supposed to support themselves? How can they be expected to compete for jobs with their children if not their grandchildren?"

"With anything up to 20 years to go before becoming eligible for a pension, women like me are in real trouble," sighs Geraldine. "How are we supposed to support ourselves when nobody is willing to give us jobs?"

"Recently laid-off after many years in the same job, some of these women don't even know what a CV or a resume is," says Geraldine. "A resume, a portfolio of one's work experience and achievements is a 1990s thing, and guess what employers expect to see right at the top of your resume?"

"Your age, of course!" laughs Geraldine.

"No woman in her right mind would want to bring daughters into the world knowing they are going to be washed up at 50, 40 or 35 while men the same age are often just getting started in lucrative careers.”

"When young women refuse to have babies, men take notice," says Geraldine. "That trend is already evident and we're responsible for it."

"We're telling our daughters that the whole Women's Lib Movement was a scam. My generation got sucked in by the equality myth. My daughter's generation won't."

Read more by Geraldine on this issue:

mom's army

market research

Chelsea is a market researcher and a happily married mom of 27 who is fed up with job hunting and wants to start her own internet based business.


"My first job coincided with the economic downturn that started with the dotcom demise in 2000 and was pushed to the edge by the tragic events of 9/11 and everybody was saying that the Internet was dead," says Chelsea, "but I predicted that it was going to pick up and expand further than ever and I was right!"

"There are now tons of jobs for all industries connected with e-commerce," says Chelsea, "and all my friends who were predicting doom and gloom are now enjoying the fruits of an incredible rise in e-commerce."

"Right now, nobody seems to be investing too heavily in Internet based businesses,” says Chelsea. "but small businesses are thriving on e-Bay. I guess it is going to take a while longer for the dotcom crash to recede into history and when the investors come back it's going to be like a second golden age, but much better!"

"With so many PC savvy and superannuation-rich Baby Boomers retiring in droves I believe that online buying is going to increase exponentially in the coming years," says Chelsea, "and I'm thinking of going it alone, starting up my own internet based business."

”My husband is bringing in a good income so I can afford to take time off to plan my new career," says Chelsea, "and with his technical experience and my market research experience I believe we would do well starting up an Internet based business - but I haven't yet decided the specific area to concentrate on."

"Now is the time for me to think and plan and research," explains Chelsea, " and that's what a lot of people like me are doing."

"I predict we can look forward to seeing 'e' preceding a lot of existing and New Age job titles in years to come," says Chelsea. "There will be e-doctors for online cam-consultations with our aging Baby Boomers; e-real estate agents for selling the old family home and buying the ideal retirement villa in a totally virtual environment; e-investment advisers for managing the Baby Boomer's retirement funds; e-lawyers for settling their disputes; and a host of new 'e' enterprises springing up to meet their needs."

"I know that a lot of IT jobs are going offshore and nobody is advising their kids to get into IT," says Chelsea, "but IT skills are going to become as important - if not more so - as reading, writing and arithmetic in the years to come."

"For someone considering a career change who possesses not only the aptitude for this type of work, but also the patience to wait until an e-business picks up, I believe you can't go wrong with IT and e-commerce skills."

"I'm drawn towards the travel and hospitality industries because I believes that the ageing Baby Boomers are going to have a huge impact in these areas."

"The first thing they will want to do when they retire from work," muses Chelsea, "is to take that long-awaited world trip, and many will just take to the road or the seas as a way of life. The travel and hospitality industries are going to boom!"

"The early baby-boom generation covers the period 1946 to 1955. So, from 2011 to 2020 when these guys reach 65 the world is going to witness a movement akin to the swinging 1960s and 1970s."

"Our hip geriatric Boomers are going to impact on the same areas they once changed during their youth," laughs Chelsea, "Everything New Age is going to come back into vogue, and that includes the fashion industry."

"Look forward," predicts Chelsea, "to flares and psychedelic gear coming back into style and being worn with a vengeance by a generation that aims to grow old (young?) disgracefully."

"Actually fashion would be my second choice for a business," says Chelsea, "but I don't believe there would be as much money in it as the travel and hospitality industries - and that's what it's all about - money, money, money!"

job competing with daughter

Ingrid, 45, is a single mom with four children who gets by doing temp work. She would love to have a proper job and depairs that her age forces her to compete for jobs with her daughter and girls young enough to be her daughter.

"I really despair of ever reaching the interview stage with any of my job applications," sighs Ingrid. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother, but while there's life there's hope I suppose."

Ingrid has a professionally presented resume and writes fantastic covering letters, but she just cannot score an interview for the type of job she wants.

"My eldest daughter actually applied for one of the dream jobs I applied for, and got it," laughs Ingrid. "That was sufficient evidence for me to accept that it's not my education, experience, location or just too many applicants applying for the same job - it was my age that had disqualified me."

Up until then, Ingrid had considered all the other factors and reasonably expected at least 10 resume rejections before scoring her first interview.

"After 120 resume rejections," says Ingrid, "I've reached that stage where I accept I'm on the wrong track altogether."

Ingrid is now assessing herself and the type of job she's been applying for.

"The right job for me may not be the job I want," explains Ingrid. "Like most things in life, jobs are a two-way street and if the job I want doesn't want me, then I need to move on, change tack."

Ingrid accepts that the type of job she wants has a preferred age range of 21-35. It is never stated in the advertisement, though. For women under 21 it is simply a matter of time before they qualify for these jobs, but for women over 35, like Ingrid, rejection on account of age may not be discrimination, per se, but simply a fact of the job being better suited for a younger person.

A company may want someone without too much experience so that person can adapt easily to the particular management style of the organization.

The job Ingrid's daughter got hired for involves working alongside people under 21. Ingrid would have been out of place in that job. She would not have fitted in.

"Having once worked at a place where I was older than everyone around me, including my boss," laughs Ingrid, "I do appreciate that this is not a good situation for all concerned."

"I came along ten years after my sisters and brothers," explains Ingrid, "so I know what it is like to feel out of place. I was one of those 'accidental' babies and I grew up knowing that I was not planned like my sisters and brothers were."

"My childhood experiences have left me feeling very sensitive about 'belonging' and 'not belonging' and it's just as bad being the oldest person in a job as the youngest person in a family."

Demographers say that the Baby Boom generation (born 1946 to 1955) is the largest age group in the workforce, but from what Ingrid can see it is the children of the Baby Boomers that are not only most predominant, but also most favored in the workplace.

"And that," concedes Ingrid, "is perfectly normal and natural and right and proper."

There is no way Ingrid can overcome her age, and she says there is no reason why she should.

"I wear my age with pride," laughs Ingrid. "But I accept that I do need to come to terms with the fact that the type of job I've been applying for and rejected for is not right for me."

What other alternatives are there?

"Many people change career direction in mid-life," says Ingrid, "and I may decide to enter a new career field - a field in which age is no barrier; or I may start considering self-employment. What? I don't know. But I'm told that there are many opportunities out there."

She is aware that some jobs actually favor mature women. A recent advertisement for a prison guard gained her attention. Her children were horrified that their mother would consider such a job, but if that is the only thing available for mature women then Ingrid is willing to consider it.

"At least I would be working with mature women like myself and I wouldn't feel out of place," explains Ingrid. "But I guess I would feel out of place in a prison!"

What Ingrid will not consider is a new career field that requires qualifications additional to the ones she already has.

"Bearing in mind the intense competition for jobs," says Ingrid, "I have no intention of re-training or joining the thousands of hopefuls trying to gain the highest educational qualifications possible."

"I don't believe that qualifications necessarily guarantee anybody a job," says Ingrid. "My daughter got the job I wanted and she's just left school!"

Ingrid could never be rejected on account of her experience. She has tons of it and in a wide variety of industries, too.

"I was very surprised when my daughter gained the job I wanted," says Ingrid, "because employers generally prefer someone with at least two years of experience in the field, or a related field. Josie had no experience whatsoever so it must have been her youth and looks that got her the job. I'm happy for her, but it's a slap in the face for me nevertheless."

"It just goes to show," says Ingrid, "that no matter what employers state in ads or tell you what they want - they choose candidates primarily on age, and to hell with the rest."

As far as location is concerned, Ingrid lives in a big city and has no transport problems. She is prepared to look further away for a job, but doesn't see why she should have to.

"I live where the jobs are," says Ingrid, "but nobody wants to employ me."

"In the old days when parents were too old to work the children kept them," laughs Ingrid. "I don't see my daughter showing any signs of wanting to keep me now that she's got the job I applied for - even though I would have been keeping her had I won it!"

"It's strange how society changes values in one respect but not in another, isn't it?"

researching personal care jobs

Nadine is 19, living at home with her parents and she's been out of work for six months after losing a job as a shop assistant. The Internet is helping her find a new career and personal care appeals.

"Being between jobs," says Nadine, "is a perfect time to dream, discover what you really love doing and gain the skills to do it professionally."

"The Internet is great for researching job opportunities," says Nadine, "and despite my current unemployed status I have stacks of hope and enthusiasm for the future."

"What I've learned from the Internet - like everyone else has - is that hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers are approaching retirement and the future looks very bright for younger workers."

"What excites me from my Internet research," says Nadine, "is that economists predict a boom in a multitude of services geared towards catering for the aging Baby Boomers - healthcare and household services particularly - that is going to rival the boom in childcare services that followed a massive increase in working women as a result of the Women's Liberation movement of the 1960s."

"I've never thought about becoming a nurse or a personal carer or a housekeeper," says Nadine, "but if these jobs are predicted to expand in the future then healthcare or personal services would be the ideal way for me to go because I'm not exactly a brain and I have no qualifications in anything."

"I'm not cut out for office work or running my own business," laughs Nadine, "and after spending hours and hours on the Net researching the job market I am getting eye strain already."

"I need a hands on type job - but it has to be a job with a future."

"I've worked in shops and food outlets and I hate that type of work."

"I like being with people and helping people," says Nadine, "but I don't know whether I have the brains to do nursing - I have friends doing nursing and they sit hundreds of exams. I couldn't do that."

"It looks like personal services such as becoming a housekeeper or personal carer might be the ideal type of job for me."

"I suppose I could get a job in a big hotel chain as a maid and work my way up," muses Nadine, "or I could find a job in a nursing home for the elderly - doing anything - and become a nursing aide or something."

"With the Internet I can research hotel chains and nursing homes and pick up the information I need."

"It's a lot better than telephoning these places because nobody has time to speak to you."

Nadine is happy enough staying home and helping her mother around the house, but she is working very hard towards discovering what she wants to do with the rest of her life and she knows from her Internet research that there will come a time when employers will be beating down her door to employ her, and there will come a time when even unqualified people like her will be in high demand.

"I'm optimistic about the future," smiles Nadine, "it has to be better than what it is now."