Generativity, Why Midlife Women May Be the Most Important Leaders of the Next Era
For most of my life, I thought midlife was a kind of winding down. I would hear people talk about retirement, and it seemed like the only goal as they got older. It seemed light-years away, and I really couldn’t grasp what it might look like for me. I “assumed” it didn’t look like a sunny, warm climate, playing Bridge or Canasta, and taking up golf. Really, was that all there was?
That is the picture of the future we are often given. Careers peak earlier, bodies change, children grow up, and energy shifts.
But something very different begins to happen for many women in their forties, fifties, and sixties. A kind of clarity arrives.
We have lived long enough to see patterns. We have raised families, built careers, cared for parents, navigated health changes, and experienced enough life to know that many of the rules we were given were incomplete. Now, more than ever, we see women in the 70s, 80s, and beyond writing books, traveling, painting, working, mentoring others, and creating movements.
Suddenly, this stage of life is not a decline. I am 67, and nothing I am doing, thinking, feeling, or experiencing has anything to do with what I “thought” this stage of my life would be like.
One of the most impactful aspects of this stage of life for women is generativity. I was not familiar with the term, or I didn’t remember being familiar with it when I first studied Erikson as a psychology major in my early college days. I believe it is a key component of midlife for women.
Generativity means using what we have learned to guide, support, and build better systems for the people who come after us.
Midlife women often see what younger people cannot yet see. We understand complexity. We understand tradeoffs. We understand that real life rarely fits into simple formulas. We also tend to be more tolerant of younger people and may have a particular affinity for mentoring younger women.
That perspective is incredibly valuable in leadership, organizations, communities, and healthcare. I have written about reciprocal mentoring, which can benefit both sides of the age equation. That, too, can be a powerful benefit to society, and not just in the workplace. Have you ever asked a 12-year-old how to do something on your computer or cell phone?
The next era of leadership may very well belong to women who are no longer trying to prove themselves but are instead focused on improving the systems around them.
Generativity also allows those of us who have moved through perimenopause to pass along insights that are still largely missing from healthcare training.
We can prepare the generation of women behind us to gain more insight and knowledge, and experience less stress.
Midlife does not close doors.
Very often, it opens the most important ones.
Please share your thoughts on Passing the Torch.
Warmly,
Debbie
