She’s a mother. Or not. With toddlers or grandchildren. She could be your neighbor, your boss, your intern. She’s beautiful. She’s sexy. She knows what she wants. At the top of her career or just starting her own business. Working in the home, out of the home, or on herself. She’s funny and sincere. She’s lived, and she’s living. She’s a woman over 40. And it’s time to get to know her. 

A woman over 40 is anything but typical.

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 become mothers 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.

News flash: 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 is in her mid-thirties. Motherhood doesn’t stop being important to her just because there are other things fighting for her attention. 

Just because she’s 40+ doesn’t mean she’s 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.

There’s a caregiving crisis. And it’s hitting women 40+ particularly hard.

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 doing a number on 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. Throw in a full-time job and you’ve got a recipe for anxiety and overwhelm with a side of exhaustion. 

Women over 40 mean business. 

Even before the Great Resignation, women were rejecting the status quo and starting their own businesses in droves. 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% of the businesses 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 them felt cooler, stronger, and sexier than they ever expected they would at this age. They didn’t lose themselves; 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!”

Women over 40 are passionate.

Whether about a person, a project, or their politics, women 40+ are not wishy-washy. They stand for things, they stand against things, and they expect the same from the brands with which they align themselves. They realize their strength, emotional and economical and they’re using it.

That sound you hear? It’s the growing volume of the voices of women over 40.

Women over 40 are congregating in groups like never before. They’re seeking safe spaces to discuss all aspects of their lives, especially ones that have been silenced by stigmas and taboos for, well, ever. Online communities have been a lifeline of connectivity and not just because of the pandemic. What Would Virginia Woolf Do recently merged with Hello Revel, which provides events and community for women reimagining mid-life. TueNight is “a place to get real with other grown-ass women.” Both of these organizations are carefully bringing back IRL events and I am definitely here for it. 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.