The Paula Principle

older women

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
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PS on older women working, and Shakespeare

A PS to yesterday's post, where I pointed out that women aged 45+ are most often found to be breadwinners.  Kimberley Botwright of the OECD's Public Affairs directorate has been running a rather improbably but delightful series of blogs linking Shakespeare plays to current OECD analyses.   So far we've had Merchant of Venice used to explore issues of financial stability, and Romeo & Juliet for policies on youth and risk. Her post on Love's Labour's Lost  led me to data on labour market participation.  If you toggle it to show the figures on employment rates amongst  older women, you can see that there's a pretty strong relation between  them and the relative prosperity of the…
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older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

PS on older women working, and Shakespeare

A PS to yesterday's post, where I pointed out that women aged 45+ are most often found to be breadwinners.  Kimberley Botwright of the OECD's Public Affairs directorate has been running a rather improbably but delightful series of blogs linking Shakespeare plays to current OECD analyses.   So far we've had Merchant of Venice used to explore issues of financial stability, and Romeo & Juliet for policies on youth and risk. Her post on Love's Labour's Lost  led me to data on labour market participation.  If you toggle it to show the figures on employment rates amongst  older women, you can see that there's a pretty strong relation between  them and the relative prosperity of the…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

PS on older women working, and Shakespeare

A PS to yesterday's post, where I pointed out that women aged 45+ are most often found to be breadwinners.  Kimberley Botwright of the OECD's Public Affairs directorate has been running a rather improbably but delightful series of blogs linking Shakespeare plays to current OECD analyses.   So far we've had Merchant of Venice used to explore issues of financial stability, and Romeo & Juliet for policies on youth and risk. Her post on Love's Labour's Lost  led me to data on labour market participation.  If you toggle it to show the figures on employment rates amongst  older women, you can see that there's a pretty strong relation between  them and the relative prosperity of the…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More