What are Midlife Crisis for Women and How to Deal with them?

We tend to overlook the fact that, up until forty or fifty years ago, women stayed at home and looked after the children but since then a generation of women have entered the workforce which has given them unprecedented choices and very few models for guidance. These women have now reached mid-life and we need to look at and define what a ‘mid-life crisis of identity’ looks like for women with careers.

Today a career-minded woman’s life path more closely resembles a man’s with shifting aspirations as they grow older, yet the reasons for the shifts differ for women. They now enter the workplace with much higher expectations of career advancement and this can mean sacrificing time spent with their children in favour of climbing the corporate ladder. With the on-going inequality in the workplace, the career woman’s development now splits off from that of men and their personal values and corporate values may become irreconcilable.

One of the worst things busy women can do is to put their friendships on hold. If you are questioning what is next for your career and possibly your life, this is when you can really value the friendships you have nourished (which is something not all men have accomplished). Most of your friends may very well be experiencing the same feelings as you are and talking things over with them will go a long way to answering some of your questions. Many of you will be asking, “What do I feel I should have done by this time in my life?” “What do I want more of in my life and is there something more important and fulfilling that I can focus on now?”

However you feel you can answer these questions, there is no doubt that many women in their midlife have a need to re-evaluate their lives, which has been called a mid-life crisis. Regardless of the impetus, a process of self-reflection and re-prioritising occurs for many women at this time. There is no ‘easy to roll out’ formula for women at this time, as everyone’s life and circumstances are so different. Typically, a woman in this phase of her life will decide that nothing fits anymore, not her job, her relationship or her beliefs and it is often her relationship that will bear the brunt of her difficulties. This doesn’t have to be the case if both partners commit to their own growth.

As Marcia Reynolds, Psy.D. says, “Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself. Some call this a mid-life crisis; I call it the Heroine’s Journey”.