3 Reasons Why Women Over 40 Need to Build Big Businesses

In the last fifty years, so much of the world has changed… and, yet, as I look at the topic of women in leadership within Corporate America, I’m reminded of just how much is still the same.

I recall being in my early thirties, working as a project manager for a small IT firm and having a female manager in her 50s. In a moment of absolute frustration, she warned me about the fate that lay ahead of me (and the current reality for her): “One day, as a woman, you just become invisible…”

I didn’t understand what she meant then. Now in my 40s, I get what she means now… to the point where it’s clear to me that, although there’s massive talk about breaking glass ceilings, there’s an unsaid understanding that women, unlike men, still have a corporate expiration date.

And, while I admire all the women in male dominated companies who are still fighting their way to the top, my take is quite the opposite:

I have no desire to fight for a seat at someone else’s table when I can build my own… especially as a woman over 40.

But, even that’s a limited perspective because so many women in the over 40 club are building small businesses. They’re solopreneurs or owners of companies with less…