Staying Visible in Spaces That Overlook Us

Why visibility isn't about ego — it's about owning your space, unapologetically.

I couldn’t tell you when I first noticed the shift. Not my work quality — that remained exceptional. Not my expertise — years of delivering multi-million-pound projects spoke for themselves. What changed was how others perceived me. Managers who hired me looked past me in meetings. Colleagues were sent out of the room so my professional superior could yell at me. I was demeaned. I was blamed. I was thrown under the bus.

The message was subtle but unmistakable: I was not just becoming invisible -  I was being targeted.

Between 40 and 57, I watched this pattern intensify. The triple jeopardy of being a woman of colour in corporate spaces compounded by age created a perfect storm of professional erasure. I wasn't imagining it, I wasn't being paranoid, and I certainly wasn't alone. What I was experiencing had a name: gendered ageism, and it is the most frequently reported type of discrimination among women 50 and older. The problem is even worse for women of colour, with Black women over 50 reporting the highest levels of discrimination, according to the AARP, “with 70% saying they experience discrimination regularly”.

Now, at 61, having built You Are Not Invisible After 50 and spoken with dozens of women who've shared similar stories, I understand something profound: staying visible in spaces that overlook us isn't about fighting for attention. It's about reclaiming the authority we've always had but learned to diminish.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Workplace Visibility After 50

Let me share some research that might make you uncomfortable, but will definitely make you think. Nearly 80 percent of women surveyed have encountered age-related discrimination in their careers, according to a 2024 study by Women of Influence. This isn't just about feeling overlooked — it's about systematic bias that affects career advancement, compensation, and professional recognition.

The data gets even more specific: Women in their mid- to late-50s have earnings 5.6 percent lower than peak mid-career levels, and in their early- to mid-60s, women's earnings are 8.0 percent below peak. While men's earnings plateau, women's decline — not because we become less capable, but because we become less visible.

But here's what the research also reveals: age diversity in the workplace yields better organisational performance. Companies with age-diverse leadership teams consistently outperform those without. Age diversity in the workplace yields better organisational performance while perceived age discrimination creates lower engagement and productivity across all age groups.

The irony is palpable. Organisations desperately need what we offer, yet systematically undervalue our contributions.

The Visibility Paradox

Here's what I've learned about visibility after 50: it's not about being louder or more aggressive. It's about being more strategic about when and how we show up. The same research that shows us facing discrimination also reveals something empowering: when we do maintain visibility, our impact is disproportionately high.

The challenge is that traditional visibility tactics — the ones that work for younger colleagues — often backfire for us. Self-promotion reads as desperation. Assertiveness gets labelled as difficult. Confidence gets dismissed as arrogance. We're caught in a double bind: invisible if we're quiet, problematic if we're not.

But there's a third way, and it's built on something younger colleagues can't replicate: authentic authority.

The Four Pillars of Authentic Authority

Over the past three years of running YANIA50, I've identified four key strategies that work specifically for women over 50 who want to maintain — or reclaim — their professional visibility:

Reframe Your Narrative Stop apologising for your experience. When someone dismisses your input as "how we used to do things," respond with "here's what I learned when we tried that approach." Your history isn't baggage — it's proof of concept.

Become the Institutional Memory Organisations desperately need continuity, especially in rapidly changing markets. Position yourself as the keeper of lessons learned, not the guardian of the past. Your role isn't to resist change — it's to ensure change builds on wisdom rather than ignoring it.

Champion Rising Talent The most visible senior women I know aren't competing with younger colleagues — they're elevating them. When you become known as someone who develops talent, your visibility becomes tied to others' success. This creates a network effect that's more sustainable than individual self-promotion.

Own Your Unique Value Proposition Stop trying to compete on the same metrics as younger colleagues. Instead, compete on the metrics where your experience provides an advantage: strategic thinking, crisis management, stakeholder relationships, and complex problem-solving.

The Compound Effect of Strategic Visibility

Visibility after 50 isn't about moments — it's about momentum. Every time you speak up with your authentic voice, you make it easier for the next woman over 50 to do the same. Every time you refuse to be dismissed, you change the room's dynamics. Every time you own your expertise, you shift the narrative about what valuable contribution looks like.

The research on socioemotional selectivity shows that after 50, we become incredibly skilled at focusing on what genuinely matters. This isn't a limitation — it's a superpower. We don't need to be visible in every conversation. We need to be unmistakably present in the conversations that count.

The Long Game

At 61, I'm more visible in my professional space than I was at 45. Not because I'm louder or more aggressive, but because I'm clearer about what I bring and more strategic about how I bring it. The authority I have now isn't borrowed or performed — it's earned through decades of real experience and refined through the clarity that comes with this stage of life.

The organizations that overlook us are making a strategic error. Parity for White women is projected to be achieved by 2046, 22 years from 2024, according to McKinsey's research. This timeline assumes current rates of change. But what if we stopped waiting for organisations to recognise our value and started demanding it?

What if we stopped shrinking to fit spaces that were never designed for us and started reshaping those spaces instead?

Visibility after 50 isn't about ego or attention-seeking. It's about ensuring that decades of hard-won wisdom don't get relegated to the sidelines. It's about recognising that our perspective isn't just valuable — it's essential. And it's about understanding that the world needs what we've learned, whether it realises it or not.

The question isn't whether you deserve to be visible — you've been earning that right for decades. The question is whether you're ready to stop hiding your light under a bushel of false modesty and start illuminating the path for others following behind you.

Because here's what I know for certain: the spaces that overlook us aren't doing so because we lack value. They're doing so because our value challenges the status quo. And sometimes, the most powerful thing we can do is refuse to be invisible in spaces that need our light the most.