Out with the old, in with the new? Only 38 per cent of women in their 40s feel positive about career progression prospects, compared to 65 per cent of women in their 20s
- 70 per cent of women cite lack of career progression as their number one reason for leaving a role
- Lack of support in the workplace around flexibility is also a top reason for leaving a role
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As the adage goes, with age comes wisdom.
And yet… It seems those in the latter stages of their career aren’t being rewarded for their experience and knowledge. A new report has identified that women over the age of 40 feel less positive about their career progression than their 20-something year old counterparts.
In fact, only 38 per cent of women in their 40s feel positive about career progression prospects, compared to 65 per cent of women in their 20s.
Additionally, 70 percent of the women who took part in the survey detailed that a lack of career progression has had a ‘huge’ or ‘significant’ impact on their decision to leave a role.
70 per cent of women cite lack of career progression as their number one reason for leaving a role
Career prospects are only one piece of the puzzle and the data uncovered that women have different needs throughout their careers, depending on what life stage they’re at, and if organisations don’t accommodate these needs through more inclusive policies surrounding flexibility and mental and physical health, they are more likely to leave a role.
For example, for the vast majority (88 per cent) of women in their 30s, support from their line manager is the number one priority and for those with children, childcare issues, such as not having flexibility around juggling work and childcare arrangements, are among their reasons for leaving a role.
However, it’s worth noting that women with children are less likely to leave their current job.
This may be because those with dependants need the financial security of their current role, but this group has reached a good flexible working agreement with their line manager, or because of the maternity leave benefits in place.
For all women in the 30s group, physical and mental health impacts rank highly as a reason for leaving a role, possibly as a result of a toxic workplace culture, lack of work-life balance or burnout.
And while childcare issues become less prevalent in the 40s age group, it is still a concern for women in this cohort, along with eldercare, physical and mental health issues and menopause.
For women in their 50s, 47 per cent say that menopause has had a “huge” or “significant" impact on their decision to remain in a role.
That said, the report’s authors Edward Haigh, strategy director at Encompass Equality and Joy Burnford, founder and CEO of Encompass Equality, are quick to point out that women are not leaving roles because of “women’s issues”. Rather, organisational issues are what need to be challenged and addressed to promote a positive change in the workplace.
Lack of support in the workplace around flexibility is also a top reason for leaving a role
“The most important conclusion of this report is also the simplest: in attempting to understand why women leave their employers we tend to put all our focus on the women themselves. We decide that the important thing is to understand as much as we can about the challenges women face and then to devise systems and services to support them,” they shared.
“There’s nothing wrong with these initiatives in themselves; they’re well-intentioned and often well-executed. But they usually have a fundamental flaw at their heart, because they start with the assumption that the problem is the women. That the women need helping. That women need fixing.
However, the 4,000 women they spoke to as part of their research beg to differ: “The big deal, they tell us, isn’t their personal circumstances, however bad they are. The big deal is line management. It’s culture.”
