In anticipation of joining the 👂 Listen Ventures squad 👂 next week, I have been (for the third time) reading through their consumer-obsessed deep dive: Mindsets from the Middle, focused on midlife womanhood.
As someone who also (like the author of the piece, Ellen Wilcox) has yet to go through "it," I found myself thinking about 👩👧 my mom 👩👧 and her experience through midlife, and it was such a special opportunity to see through HER lens 🔍
Sharing some of my favorite quotes from the piece:
😔 Suffering seems to be revered as some sort of natural and therefore acceptable part of a woman's journey. We heard stories where pain, discomfort, and physical malfunction were dismissed as inevitabilities of the woman's experience or, worse, celebrated as rites of passage. For many of these midlife women, "grit at all costs" becomes the name of the game, and sacrifice is the assumed byproduct.
⚖️ They're navigating peaks, pivots, and promotions at work. They're relied on by young children, elderly parents, senile pets, and midlife partners - they're orchestrating the entire life cycle of humanity at one time. With zero extra capacity on hand and a clear and unwavering prioritization framework in place, it's the needs of midlife women that are first to be "crowded out."
🌀 Midlife women are in the strange position of simultaneously having too many and too few solutions at their disposal. A growing number of wellness products, potions, platforms, and services tout claims and make promises for personal betterment. Better-for-you everything crowds grocery store aisles and Instagram feeds. With endless options, it feels as though the wellness category is adding anxiety more than relieving it.
🪷 The majority of women who shared their midlife experiences with us chose to tell stories about challenge, change, sacrifice, trauma, and trade-offs. Their words painted poignant pictures of loss, self-doubt, self-destruction, regret, and pain - many of which inspired the insights and opportunities already explored in this work. But to leave it at that would be to miss half the picture, because despite the negatives, their stories weren't negative. Though there was sadness, disappointment, and hatred, their stories weren't sad, disappointing, or hateful. Themes of joy, pride, self-confidence, growth, gratitude, self-transcendence, and fulfillment came through just as strongly, often prevailing in the reflective minds of these women telling their stories from the other side.
💆♀️ As normalization continues, an important but subtle shift occurs. The consumer perspective evolves from just normalizing having a problem to normalizing doing something about it: treating, healing, or managing it. Here, we unlock a new sense of motivation - this time not rooted in shame but in a true sense of empowerment.
🦋 If you haven't already, you can download the full report at the link below (and you definitely should!)
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