Jane Evans and Carol Russell are claiming 2022 as the year of the midlife woman; championing this demographic’s skills and empowering women over 45 to take their place at the table.
In the wake of mass social awakening, inclusivity has become prioritised across multiple social and political channels. Yet a massive sector of society remains invisible. That’s midlife women. The first generation of dedicated career women who fought for the work opportunities their successors benefit from has been erased. Women aged between 45 and 70 are simply not represented in entertainment, media or advertising. What is more, misogynistic ageism has seen this peer group banished from the boardroom. But there is a movement of formidable females who are fighting back and it’s led by Jane Evans and Carol Russell.
“There’s never been women like us before,” says creative director and advertising guru Jane. “We’re living longer and have been gifted an extra 20 or 30 years, so there’s a real need to take leadership and create a societal narrative that explores midlife as a distinct and productive life stage.”
The first generation of career women
Jane is the mastermind who gave Cate Blanchett her first job and whose agency Giant Leap listed Maserati and Revlon among its clients. But when Jane returned from a career break in 2015, the industry had bolted its doors. 180 job applications resulted in five interviews where Jane was warned she’d be “the old woman in the back of the office doing the shit nobody else wants to do.”
Jane realised invisibility was an issue for a whole generation of females. Pioneers in their field were suddenly branded irrelevant by a society which fast-tracks women from mothers to geriatrics without a thought for the decades in between. This realisation inspired the manifesto Invisible to Invaluable: Unleashing the Power of Midlife Women, which Jane wrote with actress and writer Carol Russel.
Carol says: “Because governments have progressively stretched the retirement age, we will be working until we’re 70. Midlife is therefore a good 20 years, and we need to change the narrative around what midlife is and show that it doesn’t mean sitting in a rocking chair with your knitting needles. We need to show how midlife women with their experience and skills can benefit the world.
Pioneers in their fields
After 13 years as an actor, Carol established herself as a writer, penning the acclaimed House of Usher script for the BBC’s Still Here series and co-writing two series of smash hit show Comin‘ Atcha. But after several years’ success, Carol found her scripts being dismissed. As she explains in the manifesto, commissioners were only interested in representing the tiny percentage of the African-Caribbean diaspora involved in gang violence, not sharing stories about families, midlife women and female friends.
Carol’s experience as a midlife woman of colour compounds ageism, misogyny and racism in one fell swoop and led Carol to found her own agency Fresh Voices in 2011. She joined forces with Jane over Invisible to Invaluable to give voice to the unheard.
As Jane puts it: “Feminism is not just equality between men and women. It’s also equality between women and women, which is why we need to come together as communities, as sisters, to change the narrative that says we’re no longer relevant once we cease to be fertile.”
Changing the narrative
The manifesto explores the patriarchal history which has created this narrative, sharing the experiences of midlife women ranging from publishing giants to refugees. This is the demographic which buys 45% of everything, but isn’t catered to in the social discussion, save for the occasional podcast about the menopause which Jane insists is creating another stereotype of “hot, sweaty, madwomen.” Both Carol and Jane agree there are far more interesting topics for midlife women to talk about, such as their financial challenges.
Backed up with considerable research, the book reveals that a third of unemployed midlife women face long-term unemployment. This was certainly the case for Jane, whose three years without work saw her relying on the local foodbank. Furthermore, midlife women have only a third of men’s retirement savings, which Jane puts down to the historic lack of maternity allowance and other inequalities. Through the book and the uninvisibility movement, Carol and Jane are making history by introducing ways to get midlife women back into work.
The Uninvisibility project
In 2020, Jane began the Visible Start programme which trains midlife women in digital media as well as providing career advice, opportunities and mentorship. This is part of her wider Uninvisibility project forming a network of brilliant midlife women. At present there are 300 women from a variety of backgrounds enrolled, including ex-police officers, mothers who have never worked and former CEOS.
“It’s an incredibly diverse cohort,” says Jane. “One thing each of these women share is that she felt invisible and that it was only happening to her. What’s blindingly apparent is that, boy! When we get together, the power between us is incredible.”
In addition to the course, Carol is galvanising women of colour to write. Currently in the process of setting up writing workshops and events to this end, Carol says:
“We have these diverse women whose lives we know very little about. So, we’re finding ways for these women to tell their brilliant stories and enrich the world.”
Building a community
As pioneers, Carol and Jane have always been futurists, and the pair stress that younger women risk their own future erasure if they don’t get behind the uninvisibility movement.
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