My two cents: “Are gen X women being squeezed out of the workforce?”
I need to step it up. That’s what I learned this morning as I read this article on Fast Company, “Are Gen X Women Being Squeezed out of the Workforce?”
Gen X workforce small in comparison
According to data from the Development Dimensions International and The Conference Board’s Global Leadership Forecast, millennial women show a greater understanding of their future career path as leaders within their organization compared to gen X women. Millennial women leaders are also more likely than their gen X peers to indicate that they are advancing in their careers at an acceptable rate, according to the report.
I’m a gen X woman. I love my job, the industry I work in, my volunteer efforts, my child-free lifestyle. I’ve never defined myself as a gen X woman though. Of all the things I am, that just doesn’t make the list when I describe myself to others.
But according to the article, I’m getting lost among the baby boomers and millenials that work around me. I’m surrounded, says the article, with each of those generations being “twice as large as the gen X workforce”. Funny, I don’t feel lost.
Gen X are doers, millennials are talkers
Part of the argument that this article makes is that millenials don’t have kids yet; baby boomers’ kids are already grown. So of course, the gen X women with kids can’t (or won’t) take a career path as quickly or move up the ladder as high as the other groups. I don’t have kids, so this doesn’t apply to me. But I can imagine that the 80-hour per week executive job plus four kids would be tough to manage.
The article goes on to say that Gen X women aren’t as vocal about their accomplishments as millenials are. That’s the truth.
I find millenials like to tell you how awesome they are rather than let you see it for yourself.
I could make a full argument about entitlement here, but I’ll hold my tongue and simply agree. It’s true: gen X women (and men) tend to be doers while millenials talk about being doers.
Ultimately, that’s a good thing and I can always take a lesson from a good thing.
#GenXWorkforce
A native Texan, Summer Huggins serves as Account Manager | Client Support for Small World Labs, a Personify company. She is also an animal advocate, active in Austin's animal rescue community, and an amateur photographer. She wants to be a Rockette when she grows up.
Amy Vernon
January 20, 2016 at 4:41 pm
Part of it, too, was so many of us were laid off in the last two recessions, as we were finally moving from middle to higher management positions. And we’re of that age where no one wants to hire those women in their 40s, blah blah blah.
Helen Mosher
January 20, 2016 at 4:57 pm
Amy took the words right out of my mouth. I’m living that meme that was circulating for a while regarding the wisdom of a 50-year-old, experience of a 40-year-old, energy of a 30-year-old and pay of a 20-year-old.