OVER 30 50 UNDER Formidable And Forging Ahead

WE HAVE FEATURED UNDER 30s AND OVER 50s BUT FOR THE FIRST TIME, FORBES AFRICA PROFILES WOMEN EXCELLING IN THEIR 30s AND 40s. FROM MUSICIANS AND ACTORS TO BUSINESS LEADERS AND TECH ENTREPRENEURS, WE SHINE THE LIGHT ON A SMALL CROSS-SECTION OF TRAILBLAZERS, DISRUPTORS AND DECISIONAKERS IN AFRICA IN THIS DEMOGRAPHIC, WRITING THEIR STORY AND OWNING IT.

- Chanel Retief and Nicole Pillay

THE WOMAN WHO DIGS HER HEELS IN, knows who she is and where she’s going, having already lived through more than three decades battling the odds and earning her stripes, is not to be messed with. She is an embodiment of how resilience can meet repertoire, creativity can marry innovation and money can match might. Given her trials and trajectories, she is not in it to wing it, but to win it.

Thought leader Avivah Wittenberg-Cox says that a woman’s career can be highlighted in phases. In her 2020 Forbes opinion piece titled 4 Phases Of Women’s Careers – Coping With The Crisis And The 30s,Wittenberg-Cox writes that this is “a decade of learning, exploring, growth, independence, and no dependents”.

When a woman is in her 20s, it’s all about ambition. In her 30s, she tends to experience what Wittenberg-Cox calls a culture shock, “where potential and parenting crash into today’s corporate cultures and systems”. The 40s are then dedicated to (re)acceleration centered around refocusing career priorities on the foundations built. And then finally, a woman’s 50s focuses on self-actualization.

This is “when empty nesters discover (often to their surprise) their peak career decades”, Wittenberg-Cox explains.

FORBES AFRICA has previously listed visionaries under 30 and pioneering women over 50. But in between those age groups, as we found, is an ocean of talent populated by women who have already tasted success and are forging ahead and also those who are discovering their true potential to become high-achievers in the third and fourth decades of their lives.