What comes to mind when you hear the words “middle-aged woman”? 

It might be someone having a hot flush, being a bit cross and possibly moaning about being knackered. It’s probably not Sharon Horgan, 56, having hot sex in her new show Youth. And it’s probably not the fact that, according to IPC Media, women make or influence 93% of household purchases (with midlife women making up a large part of that audience). Basically, they don’t just do a lot, they buy a lot too. 

I think it’s fair to say there are two things that are true of our industry. We fetishise youth and all things new – Gen Z, Gen Alpha, AI, whatever comes next – but we also like money. Making it for ourselves, our clients and our companies. 

So why aren’t we more curious about these women? 

At Meet the 85%, we work with a wide range of people, from all walks of life, across the UK. But one thing that kept standing out to me was what was happening in the lives of women in midlife; the family dynamics, relationships, work, care, identity, confidence and all the shifting responsibilities around them. Across different projects, we kept hearing fragments of women’s experiences that made me feel there was more to the........

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