{"id":287186,"date":"2025-07-24T06:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T06:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/287186\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T06:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T06:12:15","slug":"were-not-done-yet-why-gen-x-has-a-right-to-retire-in-dignity-not-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/287186\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re not done yet: Why Gen X has a right to retire in dignity, not poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s always interesting to hear the answer <\/a>to that time-honoured question: \u201cWhat advice would you give to your younger self?\u201d The answers range widely. My current favourite? Dame Helen Mirren, who emphatically recommends: \u201cTell more people to f*** off.\u201d Am with you there, Dame H! But I doubt many would say: \u201cDump shedloads of extra money into your pension pot<\/a> every month without fail, because if you don\u2019t, by the time you need it, it\u2019ll be worth precisely sweet FA<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not very inspiring? Too far in the future? Why not just enjoy life while you\u2019re young and carefree? Indeed.<\/p>\n

For too long, society has clung to an outdated vision of work<\/a> and retirement<\/a>: education, career, then a golden age of leisure. For Generation X<\/a> \u2013 my generation \u2013 that dream has evaporated like some cheap perfume, replaced by the harsh reality that dignity in retirement is a luxury many of us simply can\u2019t afford. It\u2019s time for a radical rethink.<\/p>\n

By midlife<\/a>, most people\u2019s first careers are fizzling due to burnout, redundancy and boredom. Or maybe a combination of all three. A second career isn\u2019t optional \u2013 it\u2019s a necessity, a strategic imperative, and frankly, it makes business sense. <\/p>\n

Gen X were the latchkey kids, the MTV generation, the first to navigate the digital revolution. We\u2019ve constantly adapted and reinvented. And yet, despite our agility, we\u2019ve been failed by a system that hasn\u2019t kept pace. <\/p>\n

We entered the workforce just as defined benefit pensions were disappearing, replaced by volatile defined contribution schemes. We\u2019ve weathered multiple recessions, a financial crash, a pandemic, and now face crushing living costs \u2013 all while our pension pots shrink and the official retirement age recedes into the mist.<\/p>\n

This week, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall launched a review into the state pension age and revived the Pensions Commission. The warning: \u201cTomorrow\u2019s pensioners will be poorer than today\u2019s.\u201d That\u2019s an understatement, especially for midlife women<\/a>, the picture is even bleaker. Thanks to the persistent gender pay gap, women retire with pension pots around half the size of men\u2019s \u2013 a gap of roughly 50-55 per cent.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need another government review to tell us what we already know: the retirement age is rising, and the money in the system isn\u2019t enough \u2013 especially when the population is ageing, not getting younger.<\/p>\n

So, with some muting, the retirement age could move to 71, what\u2019s the plan?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a cunning one. Employ midlifers, and especially women who are at the sharp end of gendered ageism in the workplace. <\/p>\n

For the first time ever, 38 per cent of the UK population is over 50, compared to just 24 per cent aged 20 and under. As the birth rate dwindles, the older group is only going to grow. Before you roll your eyes, let me ask: what\u2019s not to like? <\/p>\n

\"Gen-Xers<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Gen-Xers like me have wisdom, resilience, and a lifetime of skills \u2013 yet we\u2019re still the first in line for redundancy (Jacquie Duckworth)<\/p>\n

We came of age during punk and raves. Midlifers aren\u2019t going to cower in the corner because \u201call this new-fangled tech\u201d is beyond them? That we\u2019d wag our fingers and preach \u201cBack in my day\u2026\u201d like some bad clich\u00e9? That just because we\u2019ve got a few wrinkles and greying hair, we\u2019re past learning new tricks?<\/p>\n

The reality is, midlifers, especially women, are bloody brilliant.<\/p>\n

We proved ourselves to be the generation that soldiers on \u2013 regardless of what life throws at us? We have wisdom, resilience, and a lifetime of skills. Yet, somehow, we\u2019re still the first in line for redundancy. Why? Because employers believe we can be replaced by cheaper, younger, less experienced versions of ourselves. That\u2019s not just counterintuitive \u2013 it\u2019s delusional.<\/p>\n

My business, Visible Start, exists to challenge this. We run a work programme for midlife women. I\u2019ve been doing this for four years, and every cohort brings humbling, infuriating stories of how hard it is to restart their careers in their fifties. <\/p>\n

While they are looking at up to 17 years of working before the current official retirement age, they\u2019re ghosted by employers, filtered out by AI screening bots and terrified about their \u201cCV gaps\u201d if they have them.<\/p>\n

I push back, hard: those are not gaps. Those were years spent raising children, caring for elderly relatives, running households \u2013 often all at once. These women have developed strategic, organisational, and emotional skills that any workplace would be lucky to have. <\/p>\n

\"Women<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Women are likely to retire with pension pots that are half the size of men\u2019s (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

Our returners programme empowers these women with the confidence, tools and learnings that equip them to get back into the workforce for their second chance. We have a community of over 2,000 alumni fired up and ready to kick-start their second careers and add value to business. <\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t sagging blue rinse oldies \u2013 but the cool, confident, bring it on brigade. And it\u2019s just as well they have a kick-ass attitude because the hostility they face can be enormous. We had one alumni interviewed by a female hiring manager who insisted on switching off her camera for the Zoom call \u2013 as soon as she saw the candidate was a midlife woman. I\u2019ll just let that sink in. <\/p>\n

This kind of ageism starts at the hiring manager level and gets reinforced across industries. According to Totaljobs, the average age at which candidates are considered \u201ctoo old\u201d is 57. Throw \u201cwoman\u201d into the mix, and the cut-off is even younger. <\/p>\n

We are willingly discarding candidates with decades of work left in the tank \u2013 just when they are often released of family responsibilities, which means they have the most to offer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to flip the narrative. Instead of seeing us as Oliver Twists with a begging bowl asking for a break, employers need to understand why they need us in their organisations more than ever. We bring experience; we bring calm under pressure; we bring perspective, leadership, emotional intelligence in a world of AI and grit when it is needed most. <\/p>\n

\"\u2018We're<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

\u2018We’re fighting to change a system that, if left unchecked, will fail you too\u2019 (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

This is backed by data too. McKinsey reports a 25 per cent boost in profitability for companies with senior women on executive teams. Other studies show that mid-career and senior women bring adaptability, inclusive leadership, and strategic experience that directly impact a company\u2019s resilience and bottom line.<\/p>\n

Hiring midlife women isn\u2019t charity. It\u2019s good business.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re not just doing this for ourselves. I often say to younger generations: We have been in your shoes. You have not been in ours. We’re fighting to change a system that, if left unchecked, will fail you too. Because if we don\u2019t fix this? You\u2019re next.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re forging a path so that when you reach our stage, you\u2019re not met with the same invisibility, the same obstacles, the same toxic assumptions. We are creating a world where multi-generational teams thrive and careers can stretch confidently into later life. When wisdom is welcomed \u2013 not phased out, we will all be able to retire in dignity, not poverty. Now wouldn\u2019t that be fantastic?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s always interesting to hear the answer to that time-honoured question: \u201cWhat advice would you give to your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-287186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114906735864937464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}