Midrising Conversations · Episode 09
Why do younger women seem to be approaching life, work and success so differently?
Sometimes it looks as though younger women are playing by a completely different set of rules. They’re setting boundaries earlier, asking for what they want, building businesses and making career and family choices without always waiting for somebody else to tell them it’s okay.
In this episode, Gill and Barbara talk about what women in midlife can learn from the generations coming through behind us, and what decades of experience have taught us that younger women may not know yet.
About this episode
Plenty of women in our generation were taught to keep their heads down, work hard and wait to be recognised. We learned how to navigate the rules, even when nobody had bothered to explain what they were.
Younger women often seem less interested in doing things that way. They’re more likely to talk openly about boundaries, ask about flexibility, change direction when something isn’t working and create their own opportunities rather than patiently waiting for the next rung on the ladder.
That doesn’t mean they’ve got everything figured out, or that one generation is doing life better than another. Gill and Barbara explore what younger women may be getting right, what experience gives us that confidence alone can’t, and why both generations have something valuable to learn from each other.
It’s a conversation about work, ambition, confidence, courage and the changing expectations placed on women at every stage of life.
In this conversation
- Why younger women appear more willing to set boundaries at work
- The difference between earning permission and backing yourself
- How expectations around careers, relationships and family choices are changing
- Why more women are creating their own opportunities through entrepreneurship
- What confidence can give you, and where experience still matters
- What women from different generations can learn from each other
This episode is for you if…
You’ve watched younger women at work, online or in your own family and wondered where they got the confidence to say things you wouldn’t have dared to say at the same age.
Maybe you admire their boundaries but occasionally find yourself thinking, “We could never have got away with that.” Maybe you’re questioning which of the old rules still make sense and which ones you’ve continued following simply because they were handed to you.
Or perhaps you’re raising, mentoring or working alongside younger women and trying to understand how their view of work, success and adulthood differs from your own.
The Midrising takeaway
Younger women may be playing a different game, but we don’t have to keep following rules that no longer serve us.
They can remind us to back ourselves, set clearer boundaries and stop waiting for permission. We can bring the judgement, resilience and perspective that only experience gives you. Neither generation has all the answers, but there’s plenty of value in paying attention to how the other one moves through the world.
About Midrising Conversations
Midrising Conversations is the podcast for women navigating the messy, funny, confronting and unexpectedly liberating middle chapter of life.
Hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi, these are honest conversations about identity, work, relationships, confidence, reinvention and what happens when the life you’ve built no longer quite fits.
No hype, no hustle and no pretending to have it all figured out. Just frank, funny and useful conversations about what comes next.
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