To kick off my PhD research into the Psychology of Fulfilling Work, I undertook a thorough review of the latest psychology research – to gather available insights and provide a solid platform for the rest of my work.
The full article was recently peer reviewed and published in the NICEC Journal – here is a link: https://mail.nicecjournal.co.uk/index.php/nc/article/view/480.
You may prefer a summary…
In short, it seems fulfilling work is possible for midlife women, but they (we) are likely to face more, and different, challenges compared with men or other women.
There are over nine million women aged 40-60 in the UK alone, but they remain under-represented in the psychology and career literature. Whilst there is very limited research into fulfilling work for midlife women, this broad review identified 50 related studies offering important clues for women themselves and practitioners working with them.
Five key insights emerged from the literature…
- Work fulfilment seems to be predicated on decent work – without decent work, feeling fulfilled is probably less likely.
- Fulfilling work goes hand in hand with health and wellbeing – feeling fulfilled can boost your health and energy, and being healthy can improve the possibility of fulfilling work.
- The nature of fulfilling work can shift through the life course – as internal and external factors shift, what we find fulfilling could also shift. What we once found fulfilling may no longer be enough.
- Fulfilling work tends to be a different experience for women and men – career literature suggests women’s experience of work is different along with how work fits into a fulfilling life.
- Knowing if work is fulfilling is largely subjective, a felt sense – becoming more fulfilled is not a tick box of factors, you need to tune into your feelings and subjective ways of knowing when you are more / less fulfilled.
A worthwhile aspiration, even if it’s not always easy
This AI generated image was made using prompts from midlife women about how it feels when you are fulfilled.
However, decent work can be less readily available to midlife women due to economic constraints, multiple sources of marginalisation, limited work volition, and restricted career adaptability.
Meeting basic psychological needs, particularly survival / power and self-determination needs, may also be tougher. During midlife, biological, psychological, and social factors collide to make it a challenging and disruptive stage. Whilst there has been a notable increase in interest and research into menopause, few women want to defined by this aspect of the midlife transition alone.
As the nature of fulfilling work shifts in midlife, fulfilment is pertinent and choices made at this stage can significantly impact future health, wealth, wellbeing and happiness.
If fulfilling work is indeed an aspirational outcome available to most people, as the literature suggests, more work is needed to provide guidance for individuals and practitioners. Watch this space!
To me, the NICEC Journal is a must read for all career practitioners – including anyone in HR, Talent Management, career coaching, people management. It straddles academic rigour and practice in a way very few others achieve.
Fulfilling work 