The future of work is female — and older
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Historically, many women dropped out of the labor force because of family obligations. Today, women are working longer — in some cases because they feel like they’ve finally hit their stride in their careers. In other cases, they feel they can’t afford to retire.
Hannah Ziegler is a business reporter for The Post, and she talks to host Martine Powers about this Big Shift as the workforce becomes older — and more female.
Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair.
You can also read about the hurdles older women face with investing and how some savers have overcome them. Plus, the women who are sharing their homes as they grow older.
Check out a live podcast taping that will be hosted by Martine on Jan. 25 about the enduring legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Lexi Martin is 80 years old, and she has had a long career in tech. |
| 0:07.2 | I started in 1967 as a programmer. |
| 0:10.6 | I was one of the first women hired at the Bank of America. |
| 0:14.1 | I worked my way up to applications manager. |
| 0:18.3 | And from there, Lexi went on to work for the Stanford Research Institute and then |
| 0:23.3 | the Institute for the Future. She retired at 70, but she hated it. So she went back to work as a |
| 0:32.4 | researcher for almost another decade. And then I finally retired, although I call it redirecting, about a year and a half ago. |
| 0:42.4 | But I continued to do research because, you know, that's what I do. |
| 0:46.6 | That's what gives me joy. |
| 1:01.6 | Lexi is part of a growing cohort of older women who are staying in the workforce or going back to it. |
| 1:05.3 | And this big shift is something we've been reporting on at the post. |
| 1:07.9 | Here's business reporter Hannah Ziegler. |
| 1:13.2 | One in every ten workers in the U.S. today is a women older than age 55. |
| 1:20.1 | And I wanted to report this story because these women are staying at work, both because they enjoy their jobs and are really passionate about what they do, but also because there are |
| 1:24.3 | some greater economic reasons that are forcing women to stay longer, |
| 1:28.4 | and that dynamic was really interesting to look at. |
| 1:35.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:39.8 | I'm Martine Powers. |
| 1:41.4 | It's Thursday, January 23rd. |
| 1:44.0 | Today, we talk about the historic number of older women |
| 1:47.5 | who are still working, and we hear from some of them about why this trend matters. |
| 2:15.2 | All right, so Hannah, let's unpack this trend a little bit more, and I want to start with the good news here, the good side of all of this, the empowering story that you see in these numbers. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -68 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.