Older Women, Economic Power, and Consumerism

Abstract

In the twentieth century, there were great changes in lifestyles and the labor force. People began to live longer, women entered the labor force en masse, and people began to have a period of retirement before they died. In the twenty-first century, the increase in life expectancy is continuing, but, overall, the female labor force participation in the developed countries is no longer increasing. In addition, although a period of retirement has remained the norm, it is being pushed back to older ages, and people are continuing to work in their sixties and beyond, either full-time, part-time, at their career jobs, or at bridge jobs. The most notable result of these changes is the large increases in the labor force participation rates of women over 60.

With this increase in employment, there is great potential for older women to have more power in the economy. Yet, due to the glass ceiling effect this power is not in the corporate decision-making world, but as consumers with their buying power. Not all women have this power because many older women live in or near poverty, but there is a growing subset of older women, who have sufficient financial resources from inherited wealth, from earnings, or from pensions, and who are not burdened by large health expenses and/or caregiving expenses, to potentially influence the goods that are sold in various markets.

In markets where the main consumers are older women, firms have to produce goods based on the needs of the older women, but in mixed markets, which cater both to the young and old, there is little evidence yet that older women have been able to transform their potential buying power to change the types of goods being sold to meet their needs. This indicates a lower degree of choices with regard to the goods market than those available to younger women. However, with the continuing growth of the percentage of people 60 and over in society and the expected future increase in earnings of older women, the market segment of active older women consumers will grow. Thus, it is possible that in the future, women 60 and over will have a greater influence on and greater choices in the consumer market, even when those goods are sold both to older and younger women.