Voices

Where are all the older women?

The lack of middle-aged and older female representation in the media is both damaging for audiences and bad for business

Vicki Maguire

Chief Creative Officer Havas London

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When was the last time you, as a woman of a certain age, smiled when you saw yourself on screen? I’m not talking about seeing pics of yourself laughing with mates on social media feeds, I mean seeing someone just like yourself joyfully depicted in a film, TV show or advert?

Personally, I am frankly wracking my brains. When it comes to women over 40, if we’re seen at all, we’re shown as world-weary, literally pissing ourselves while doing yoga, being left for a younger model, cheated on, in costume in some historical drama, having a menopausal meltdown or, in some adverts, ACTUALLY WHISPERING about the fact that we’re even over 40. 

Even now in the 21st Century, if we’re not shown on the school run, juggling children or arguing with teenagers, we’re stuck in the kitchen or doing housework. 

There’s still a lack of middle-aged and older female representation in the media, never mind done in a joyful, uplifting yet still realistic and relatable way or you know, normal middle-aged women doing their job brilliantly. If there’s humour involved, it’s often verging on a caricature or worse, a negative stereotype. Where are the positive, happy role models? 

And even though it could be argued that television has become a richer medium when it comes to roles for middle-aged women, so many female characters over 40 are still shoved firmly into the background.

We don't make being a grown woman look like a job you’d want to apply for.

Caitlin Moran, Author

Research from 2019 found that older women are often relegated to supporting roles – or are consistently portrayed as grumpy, frumpy or mad. We’re more often shown as fuck ups in some way rather than simply and laughingly not giving a fuck. 

But there are many joys of being a middle-aged woman, the knowledge and experience that age brings, the brilliance of female friendship, and frankly, the freedom of not giving a fuck as we get older. 

As Caroline Noakes MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Equalities Select Committee has said:  “You can’t be what you can’t see. Generation X (women) will not be silenced, we will not put up with that ‘past 40 and past-it’ mentality. We want to be seen and heard. We feel we are at our peak in midlife, that we are just hitting our stride.”

But there are many joys of being a middle-aged woman, the knowledge and experience that age brings, the brilliance of female friendship, and frankly, the freedom of not giving a fuck as we get older.

Vicki Maguire, Chief Creative Officer, Havas London

I couldn’t agree more. We’re not women who have simply pushed our dreams to one side and given up on bringing our full, present, dynamic selves to this wonderful thing that we call life. Of course, being a woman over 40 isn’t always a bed of roses, but we’re still curious, diverse, happy, funny people.

‘Real women’ aren’t a marketing gimmick and the time has come to challenge the discourse around middle-aged females. 

We women in the creative industries have a unique power to change the narrative that simply existing as a grown woman is a fundamentally miserable pursuit. Challenge accepted!

Guest Author

Vicki Maguire

Chief Creative Officer Havas London

About

Vicki Maguire is a rare breed: a world-class creative, a woman leading the charge and a force for modernising our industry. Appointed Havas London’s first female CCO in 2020, she helped steer the agency to its best-ever year creatively – winning its first Cannes Gold Lion in almost a decade for the Black Plaque Project. She was named Creative Leader of the Year in both 2020 and 2021 by Campaign Magazine, as well as a Female Frontiers honouree for her groundbreaking achievements in advertising. She was also named on the IPA’s inaugural iList – recognising the industry’s 30 most outstanding diversity and inclusivity game-changers. In 2016, she became the chair of the Creative Circle Awards – the first woman ever to hold that position. Active within organisations such as WACL and SheSays to promote the advancement of women in advertising, she is one of the most popular, outspoken and recognisable voices in the industry.

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