A woman's work is never done

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Cheryl Keates, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Since 1963, the women’s movement has soared. Where our footsteps were rarely heard in the halls of the university, today there are more women college graduates then men. When stepping out of our home once meant stepping into the shoes of a teacher or secretary, by 2000, we stepped into the courthouse and operating room. Today, one-third of all N. American doctors and lawyers are women. Economically, uh-oh, women still earn only $.77 for every $1.00 earned by men.

Yet, without a road map or even a paved road to guide us, “You’ve come a long way, Baby.” Today, in our 50+ golden years, many are stepping into a whole new world previously reserved for “men only” – ENTREPRENEURSHIP. For women, taking care of business is taking on a whole new meaning.

An “empty nest” no longer means an empty life and there is an alternative to retirement. There is a way to honor our hard earned skills and savvy, our knowledge and hard learned know-how in the trenches. There is a way to turn the lessons of a lifetime into our passion; our employer’s generous buy-out package or our own rainy day stash into our future of success! There is a way to stop taking care of the business that we have to and start creating the business that we love.

So where do women stand today? As always, we’re not standing still; a whole new age or stage of life is beginning: The Age of Maturity. The age of confidence and style. The age of knowing what we love and doing it. The age of doing what women have learned to do better than anyone else on Earth – change.

When biology dictated the role of Motherhood, women disrupted their world to embrace it. Today, biology, again, dictates the disruption of our lives. We can’t avoid it. Among the largest group of women ever, the youngest of the 38 million female Baby Boomers is 53; the oldest is 72. So what’s a girl to do? Embrace it.

The rockstar women we admire have already proven that we can dominate the entrepreneurial landscape. Sheryl Sandberg, at Facebook, is second only to Zuckerburg, himself; JK Rowling turned the Harry Potter franchise into a magical phenomena; Sara Blakely went from selling door-to-door fax machines to opening the door to her multi-million dollar empire in SPANX undergarments; and Oprah, worth about 2.7 billion dollars, needs no introduction other than her first name!

But, dynamic as they are, it’s not the individual wonder women that guide the extraordinary growth of women entrepreneurs – it’s our own vast experience and expertise, our high levels of emotional intelligence, our fearlessness, tireless energy and indomitable determination that make the modern women’s movement skyrocket…and we, the modern woman, a powerful force of Nature.

So where’s the proof in the store-bought or homemade pudding? In 2015, 24% of all new businesses were founded by people age 55 and over. And more startling, 40% of all new entrepreneurs are

women. Outstanding!!!

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, indeed; now it’s time to fly. So whether you call yourself a “seniorpreneur” or an “encorepreneur,” there’s never been a better time to simply call yourself the BOSS!