Gravitas and the Rise of Female Solopreneurship
When I realized my own “selfless season” was ending and I was exploring what to do with my next chapter, I had coffee with just about everyone I could. I wanted to investigate what was out there and meet as many people as I could. For a while, I considered practicing law again, even though it had been over a decade. My challenge was this - I wanted to practice in a different area than I had before. (I did not enjoy what I did in my early legal career.) However, that would require learning a new legal practice entirely. I was up for the challenge theoretically, and knew intellectually I could do it, but I figured I would need a mentor, someone who was willing to put in time and effort to train me. And therein lay the problem. I met with several attorneys who expressed interest but balked at the idea of training anyone, even though they conceded that my experience and maturity would have made me an exceptional addition to their team. It was really about the timing, most said. As a team member in my 40s, I could easily gain the trust of distinguished clients because of my executive presence and the gray “tinsel” occasionally popping through my highlights. “Gravitas,” someone else called it. I would also offer a keen career focus that younger attorneys lacked, another law firm CEO told me. In my opinion, there’s no one grittier than a woman who’s been jonesing to use her brain again after a 10-year sabbatical. I did actually meet with one gentleman who had a track record of hiring women who had taken time off for kids. He and his firm model were great - incredibly inspiring and incredibly rare.
Despite the support so many employers expressed about the hireability of a woman in her 40’s returning to the traditional workforce, actions spoke louder than words. The reality was that it was an uphill battle to prove that I was worth training.
In my estimation, this is why so many women in their 40’s and 50’s are launching businesses. Yes, they’re badasses with a vision who are leaping into the unknown for flexibility and control over their time. And I also imagine many of them also found friction in a traditional workforce that sees a “gap” in their resume as a mark against their candidacy. While remote work has become a viable and ubiquitous option for many working moms post-COVID, there is still an extreme hurdle for women looking to get back into a traditional office environment. As such, women in their 40s and 50s who are looking to their next professional chapters are focusing hard on their side hustles or launching their own accounting, interior design, architecture, law firms, or consulting businesses.