Entering a new era for midlife female creatives

In 1975, women were finally given the right to enter careers previously barred to them. A trickle of them joined the ad industry, a 70-year-old woman would have been 20 at the time, so we are only now seeing the entire career trajectory of ad women and the end is not looking good. You can count the high-profile creative women over 50 on one hand.

The good news is that the pioneers fought for workable maternity leave, affordable childcare, sexual harassment in the workplace legislation, and, in recent years, menopause recognition. So, a 45-year-old woman today stands a much better chance of enjoying a long and successful career than those of us who paved the way.

Now, after years of campaigning for the industry to recognise the value of midlife female creatives creating campaigns for the women we’ve always sold to, I give up.

You should, too. Nobody’s talking to post-menopausal women. It’s time to take all your inspiration, experience and skill to create your own product, service or idea that taps into the multi-trillion pound market that’s being ignored.

Make your ideas a reality

And all you have to do is what you’ve always done - pluck ideas out of fresh air and make them a reality.

All the women I know who started their creative careers with nothing more than a layout pad and magic markers to convey their ideas have taken to generative AI like ducks to water. And we’re really good at it because the machines learnt creative processing in exactly the same way we did by flicking through magazines, watching TV and movies, reading books and manuals, going to galleries…

Add Photoshop skills honed since the clunky v1, typography we used to craft by pencil, scriptwriting that lands in 30 seconds, years in editing suites and countless pointless meetings, changes and ideas going over the top of clients' heads, and you don’t need any of them anymore.

Become the one who makes all the money

Become the client, the product designer, the strategist, the creative, the brand manager, the marketing director, the film maker, the editor, the VFX artist, the voice over, the music arranger, the social media manager and the one who makes all the money.

For those of us creatives who have always walked the path that doesn’t exist, AI is the greatest creative tool we have ever had. Add social media and e-commerce and anything’s possible.

Which doesn’t bode well for the ad industry. That’s OK. Everything’s breaking at the moment. It’s just change, we’ve seen a lot of that before. I believe a return of creative auteurs is exactly what a slimmed-down agency structure needs to survive.

We need to prove the future is ours too, because most of us still have half our lives to live.

Time for us to lead

And half a life lived, we remember back to the last century when we asked ourselves, ‘does advertising lead culture or follow it?’ There wasn’t a definitive answer back then but there is now. It follows.

It’s time for us to lead. Again.

So, in a few years, when the first women get through the menopause with their jobs intact, start realising that the best bit is the second act, we’ll see a massive change and the industry will start selling us more than funeral plans.

*All of the above advice is equally relevant to male creatives 50+. But honestly, after 30 years of uninterrupted careers on your salaries, if you’re not writing a book in your house in Tuscany, I’m very disappointed in you!

Jane Evans is Executive Creative Director at Visible

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