It’s time to get to know women over 40

At no other point in a woman’s life is she so likely to be so different from her age mates. Biologically, emotionally, financially, sexually, psychologically. This group is incredibly diverse.

More than 100,000 women over 40 give birth every year in America

These are mothers largely ignored by advertising and marketing which focuses on the wide-eyed, and wrinkle-free twenty-something. They are mothers who share the same anxieties, fears, and frustrations as their younger counterparts, but also have the added complexity of the loneliness of feeling on the outside of a very insiders only club.

Women don’t stop being moms when their kids (and they!) grow up

You might see an exhausted mom with silent, phone-clutching teens in the backseat of her SUV, but more likely than not, those kids are fighting and frenetic pre-teens and mom’s in her mid-thirties. Motherhood doesn’t stop being important to her just because there are other things fighting for her attention. 

And BTW, she might not even be a mom

Over 15% of women between 40-50 are childless. Some of them by choice, some not. All of them with a different experience of this time in their lives than their counterparts with children. But this doesn’t mean they’re not caretakers.

The caregiving crisis is profoundly affecting women over 40

The number of Americans providing unpaid care has increased over the past five years, and as of 2020 70% of family caregivers are over 40 and 63% are women. And this is affecting their health: physical, emotional, and financial. For women between 40 and 55 who may be caring for both children and their own parents, this can put them in a particular bind. And we’re not even talking about the toll the current pandemic is taking on these women.

Women over 40 mean business

From 2007-2018 women-owned businesses have outpaced businesses overall in number, employment and revenue. There are 12.3 million women-owned firms creating 1.8 trillion in revenue. And who are these women? Two thirds of them are over 45. And 47% are minority owned.

Being over 40 is nothing like what she expected

When Fancy surveyed 500 women over 40 we learned that the vast majority of of them felt cooler, stronger, and sexier than they ever expected they would at this age. They didn’t lose their selves, they became more of who they are. As a friend said to me on my 50th birthday, “Come for the menopause, stay for the confidence and beauty of not giving a f*#k!”

That sound you hear is the growing volume of the voices of women over 40

Women over 40 are congregating in groups like never before. Online communities have been a lifeline of connectivity and not just because of the pandemic. What Would Virginia Woolf Do began as a secret Facebook group in 2015 and quickly ballooned into a 30,000 member private group where women discussed all the mental, physical, and emotional aspects of aging before leaving the platform and creating an app and web-based experience. TueNight is a “platform for women over 40 to share the hilarious, messy and very true stories of our lives.” Both of these groups had robust in-person options as well, before the pandemic, and have moved the experiences online for the time being. There are many, many more groups. Women over 40 have strong opinions, incredible empathy, and a lot of advice. They have found their voices and they are not being quiet about it.

So brands, when you’re considering broadening your focus to include women over 40, be sure to really include who she actually is, how your brand can connect to what is important to her, and the kind of difference you can make for the life she’s living.