With over a third of people now freelancing/gig working, we've learned that job security is an illusion. Job titles are, as you point out, not identity. I never did the mother part of life and I'm a wife without ever really changing my life, so I never felt that identity change.
The writers tend to feel the shifts first, the shift to online, the shift to social media and short attention spans, and now AI. We always find our way because what is unique about us isn't our output, it's our ability to process lived experience. This AI cannot do. Viewpoint matters.
I see young people rushing back to the trades, to cooking, to not losing their lives in a laptop. I think that's mostly a positive, if only for their own health and well-being.
Young people rushing back to the trades is also smart. I think this is where the future opportunity (or purpose) lies. My concern is that although AI can not process lived experience, it can convincingly fake it, which doesn't bode well for us writers. I don't believe great human writing will ever go away; it will just be much, much harder to forge a career from it.
Trades are great, but everyone can’t work that way. I’d like to think my non-trades job affords me the $$ I need to retain a tradesperson to work here at my house which affords the tradesperson to make a living.
When employment in the non-trades plummets, there won’t be $ to retain a plumber or buy an artisanal pastry or a ticket to see the ballet or to pay for the WiFi to use AI. We’ll all be sunk.
This is exactly the conundrum I'm talking about when I mention the future need for Universal Basic Income, Elle. When the non-trades thinking jobs are gone (and I think they will be in the next 10-20 years). There will need to be a massive economic reckoning and an upending of social status based on job title.
Who knows? Taxes on the AI companies by the government maybe (?) Thankfully, that's not my job to figure out. And yes, agreed on the psychological effects - that's why identity work is vital right now. The wave is cresting whether we like it or not.
But the AI companies don't make any money. At present, the whole thing is a massive economic bubble. I don't see any evidence AI will become hugely profitable in a few decades either. I could imagine them becoming part of the government security apparatus, mind
I hadn't thought about the identity piece. You're totally right though. Those of us who have been reinventing ourselves our whole lives are going to find AI evolution easier to embrace.
The youths are having the same experience as a careerist's first recession. It's yet another example of "doing everything right" (according to ....?...) but the formula they followed doesn't yield the results they were told would come. It can be crushing to hope and confidence. We can be there for them, encouraging them to find their identity apart from external labels.
It’s not just how we view ourselves, but also how we are viewed by others and subsequently treated. One of the most annoying things about choosing to step off the corporate career ladder was the question, “what do you do?” I came to interpret it as “are you worth my time.” It didn’t matter that I was on several (unpaid) community boards including the school board, I was deemed unworthy until I finally answered, “anything I want.”
Agreed, Julie. When my husband retired he struggled with this exact same question. A friend advised him to answer, "whatever the f**k I want," and that reframe changed everything.
So true. I have had to reinvent myself career wise again and again during the last 30 years. You’ve also made me realise something; both my parents died recently and my ID as a daughter has now been shed. I hadn’t thought of that… with it, my sense of duty is gone, which has left a void but I think a sense of freedom will come from that perhaps… 🤔
That’s a tough one, Rosie and I’m sorry for your loss. Perhaps a sense of freedom not from the loss of your parents (of course) but from the release of having to perform the role of “daughter,” however they defined it for you.
While I agree with your general premise that people need to find an identity outside of work, I do not believe AI will make any jobs truly obsolete.
AI as it currently exists is extremely flawed, extremely expensive to develop, and has few prospects of making actual revenue for the companies that have invested in it. AI is essentially a collection of glorified chat bots. And it’s circling the drain. Its usefulness has been significantly exaggerated and companies who have laid off workers to use AI instead have been seeing the detrimental effects and are beginning to backtrack.
To assume that within ten years AI will replace lawyers is really quite delusional. And it is absolutely not a good idea to rely on it for research, or therapy (!), or even take anything it “says” at face value because it regularly and demonstrably makes things up.
If anything, the effect AI will have on the upcoming generation is that it will take away their ability to think critically or to develop any real work ethic. It is robbing them of an education and teaching them to rely on a faulty system.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t use AI, but we absolutely have to recognize its very real limitations and do our due diligence when we use it.
Thanks for reading, Hayley. As I state in the post:
"Which brings me to this... this post isn't about AI taking jobs. This post is about AI taking identities."
My post wasn't actually making predictions about whether AI will or won't replace specific jobs. It was about what happens to people's identity when their professional role suddenly becomes uncertain or devalued. That's already happening, regardless of whether those fears are technically justified.
I do want to counter on a few of your specific points...
"AI won't make any jobs truly obsolete" History suggests otherwise. Telephone switchboard operators, elevator operators, bowling pin setters, and hundreds of other roles disappeared when technology advanced. The question isn't whether jobs will become obsolete, they will, but which ones and how quickly.
"Companies are backtracking on AI" Some are, but the trend isn't reversing. Goldman Sachs reports that generative AI could expose 300 million full-time jobs to automation globally, and McKinsey estimates that by 2030, 375 million workers may need to switch occupational categories. Even if these estimates are 50% wrong, that's still massive disruption.
"Assuming AI will replace lawyers in ten years is delusional" Unfortunately, legal AI isn't a future prediction. It's already here. Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and Harvey AI are currently doing contract review, legal research, and document analysis. Will AI replace all lawyers? Probably not. Will it fundamentally change what legal work looks like and who gets hired to do it? Yep. That's already happening.
"It will rob the next generation of critical thinking" This exact argument was made about calculators, computers, and search engines. Whether AI does this depends entirely on how we choose to integrate it, not on the technology itself. I would say that AI has enhanced my own critical thinking skills because of the way I choose to work with it (it requires higher order thinking skills to get the most out of it).
But we do agree! Your last line - "we absolutely have to recognize its very real limitations and do our due diligence when we use it" - is spot on.
The real question my post was pondering was about the human experience of identity collapse, which is something midlife women have been navigating for decades, and something the broader culture is about to experience at scale.
Hi Lisa-Marie, thanks for engaging. I think the topic of identity collapse among midlife women is interesting enough to explore without bringing AI into it.
That said, a couple of counterpoints: Yes, past technology has made jobs obsolete. But by making a parallel between AI and telephone switchboards, you are suggesting that AI solves a specific problem effectively. That is yet to be demonstrated.
As I mentioned previously, AI models are notoriously faulty. They regularly return incorrect answers, and as demonstrated by this recent study from METR.org (https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/), actually *adds* time and effort to a programmer's job. I would say it's likely the same with other jobs.
You are right that calculators and computers enable and enhance our capabilities as humans. But calculators and computers do not regularly return "hallucinations" or assert that an incorrect answer is correct. It does not matter how you craft your prompt to an AI chatbot, it still frequently returns incorrect answers. To accept AI outputs as fact without doing your due diligence is to lack critical thinking. Calculators cannot lie the way AI can.
Many economic signs are pointing to a bubble similar to the dot-com one of the early 2000s during which any company with a connection to "The Internet" was readily hyped and invested in. In a similar vein, companies today are trying to get on the AI money train in any way they can. But pretty soon it will no longer be sustainable. Many of the big players have halted development of data centers intended for AI projects. Apple recently announced that they are no longer actively investing in developing new AI tech. NVIDIA, Microsoft, and ChatGPT are passing around the same $100b and passing it off as revenue. There is no feasible plan among these companies to recoup their investment in AI, let alone actually make money off of it.
If you think about it, AI has been around for a long time already. It has just been repackaged and marketed as something new. I mean, no one was expecting Alexa or Siri to change the world and make people's jobs obsolete back when they came out in the early 2010s. That is the exact same tech that AI runs on today.
We are all in for a very rude awakening when the AI bubble finally bursts.
Hayley, I think we have fundamentally different readings of what's happening, and that's fine.
You see a bubble about to burst. I see infrastructure investment for transformative technology. Apple's "not actively investing" claim is PR spin while they integrate AI across their entire product line.
The comparison to Alexa and Siri is... not accurate. Those were voice-activated search interfaces. Current AI models can write code, pass bar exams, diagnose medical conditions from imaging, and engage in complex reasoning. Saying "it's just been repackaged" is like saying smartphones are just repackaged landlines. The underlying technology is categorically different.
The hallucination issue you're focused on is a current implementation problem, not a ceiling on the technology. Every technology has an awkward adolescence. The iPhone couldn't copy/paste at launch.
But I do agree that current AI absolutely requires critical thinking and due diligence. Anyone treating it as infallible is being reckless.
Where we differ is I think this technology is following the same trajectory as every other general-purpose technology in history... awkward beginning, rapid improvement, fundamental transformation of how we work. You think it's overhyped vaporware that will collapse.
We'll know who's right in a few years. In the meantime, my work is about helping women navigate identity transitions regardless of whether those transitions are driven by AI, menopause, divorce, or career changes. The identity work remains the same.
Hey, I appreciate the discussion. Always happy for push back to help me better develop my points.
AI as we know it (primarily LLMs) are glorified chatbots just like Alexa and Siri. They are just trained on much larger databases and with more robust algorithms. They have to be continuously maintained and updated. They don’t write anything, they don’t use logic and reasoning the way humans do, they use existing data to predict answers.
You're conflating two separate issues: financial bubble dynamics and technical capability. These are independent variables.
Bubbles happen when money moves faster than value creation. The technology can be completely real and transformative while also being financially overvalued in the short term.
A couple of random article links don't support the more robust research in this space.
Thanks for the convo, but I want to stop procrastinating and get back to my writing, and we're clearly operating from different information bases. I'll leave it here.
Oh my goodness, I loved this post so much. And every time I freak out about AI now I’m gonna remind myself that I’ve been here before, figuring out who I am, many times. Thank you for this profound perspective shift.
Thank you for this and well articulated. I struggle with the over analysis of what our future with AI holds and feel worried for my daughters’ places in that world. In reality we always adapt and evolve and keeping an open, joyful and pragmatic view throughout is key. Just downloaded your questbook and excited to give it a try!
What AI can never do, or be better at… mothering. It will never be able to replace the warmth of my embrace, the food that I lovingly place on the table, the encouragement when they try to do something hard, the safety of home. Our mistake is in thinking that our identity is wrapped up in what we do, instead of who we are. AI can never replace human relationships or acts of love and service.
A month ago, I made my granddaughter a princess mermaid dress. She picked the fabric and told me what she wanted it to look like. Sure, we could have bought it on Amazon for cheaper and had it delivered… but we made memories together, going to the store, her explaining how she wanted it to look, me sending her pictures of the process, until she finally got it in the mail…. AI can never replace this. It’s not about the job, it’s about the humans in your life.
This post was fucking fantastic and gives me hope, both for the world, but also for myself. I am just now approaching midlife and have found myself asking this exact question- who the fuck am I? I’ve not figured it out yet, I’m scared shitless honestly of what happens from here, but I’m trying to stay positive and see it as an opportunity 🥹
This is beautifully written and I can really see how it would resonate for a lot of women. I think I’m sitting with a bit of a reaction to it though, a little triggered 😂 though I know that’s mine to hold.
I didn’t have the marriage, kids, or high-flying career to lose (toxic ex and AI - like how you pointed out made it so freelance writing gigs dried out), so sometimes when I read reflections like this I wonder where people like me fit into the conversation about identity and reinvention.
I know everyone’s path is different but your piece made me want to name that feeling as it came up. Thank you!
I get it, Kelly. It’s a lot. I think we are probably all feeling a little triggered by what’s probably coming (and what’s arrived so far). If you don’t mind sharing your reaction, I’d be interested. What does triggered feel like? And why do you not feel like you have a place in this conversation. All women do!
I remember the first time I listened to my identity. I had been an architect, and due to my family choices, was no longer eligible or willing to meet the requirements for registration. I was still young and it hurt. What got me through was realising how lucky I was - I realised most men wouldn’t lose theirs until retirement, when their ‘identity’ and expectations would be perhaps too rigid.
My anecdotal experience amongst my friend group is that men have a harder time at retirement than women. I would speculate that's because women are forced to address changing role-based identities more frequently.
I’m not surprised, although I wonder if that will change as more women spend time in the traditional workplace. You are not the only’ ruminating about the future of humanity’.
Thank you for this thoughtful post. It has caused me to think back on the many identity shifts and reinventions I have undergone, and how women become practiced at this. Thank you again for doing what you do.
With over a third of people now freelancing/gig working, we've learned that job security is an illusion. Job titles are, as you point out, not identity. I never did the mother part of life and I'm a wife without ever really changing my life, so I never felt that identity change.
The writers tend to feel the shifts first, the shift to online, the shift to social media and short attention spans, and now AI. We always find our way because what is unique about us isn't our output, it's our ability to process lived experience. This AI cannot do. Viewpoint matters.
I see young people rushing back to the trades, to cooking, to not losing their lives in a laptop. I think that's mostly a positive, if only for their own health and well-being.
Young people rushing back to the trades is also smart. I think this is where the future opportunity (or purpose) lies. My concern is that although AI can not process lived experience, it can convincingly fake it, which doesn't bode well for us writers. I don't believe great human writing will ever go away; it will just be much, much harder to forge a career from it.
Trades are great, but everyone can’t work that way. I’d like to think my non-trades job affords me the $$ I need to retain a tradesperson to work here at my house which affords the tradesperson to make a living.
When employment in the non-trades plummets, there won’t be $ to retain a plumber or buy an artisanal pastry or a ticket to see the ballet or to pay for the WiFi to use AI. We’ll all be sunk.
This is exactly the conundrum I'm talking about when I mention the future need for Universal Basic Income, Elle. When the non-trades thinking jobs are gone (and I think they will be in the next 10-20 years). There will need to be a massive economic reckoning and an upending of social status based on job title.
So where will the money to pay for UBI come from? Before we get to the psychological effects of putting much of society on benefits
Who knows? Taxes on the AI companies by the government maybe (?) Thankfully, that's not my job to figure out. And yes, agreed on the psychological effects - that's why identity work is vital right now. The wave is cresting whether we like it or not.
But the AI companies don't make any money. At present, the whole thing is a massive economic bubble. I don't see any evidence AI will become hugely profitable in a few decades either. I could imagine them becoming part of the government security apparatus, mind
I hadn't thought about the identity piece. You're totally right though. Those of us who have been reinventing ourselves our whole lives are going to find AI evolution easier to embrace.
The youths are having the same experience as a careerist's first recession. It's yet another example of "doing everything right" (according to ....?...) but the formula they followed doesn't yield the results they were told would come. It can be crushing to hope and confidence. We can be there for them, encouraging them to find their identity apart from external labels.
Yes! May we all find one or many twenty-somethings to mother through this coming difficult time.
It’s not just how we view ourselves, but also how we are viewed by others and subsequently treated. One of the most annoying things about choosing to step off the corporate career ladder was the question, “what do you do?” I came to interpret it as “are you worth my time.” It didn’t matter that I was on several (unpaid) community boards including the school board, I was deemed unworthy until I finally answered, “anything I want.”
Agreed, Julie. When my husband retired he struggled with this exact same question. A friend advised him to answer, "whatever the f**k I want," and that reframe changed everything.
So true. I have had to reinvent myself career wise again and again during the last 30 years. You’ve also made me realise something; both my parents died recently and my ID as a daughter has now been shed. I hadn’t thought of that… with it, my sense of duty is gone, which has left a void but I think a sense of freedom will come from that perhaps… 🤔
That’s a tough one, Rosie and I’m sorry for your loss. Perhaps a sense of freedom not from the loss of your parents (of course) but from the release of having to perform the role of “daughter,” however they defined it for you.
An experience coming for me as well pretty soon, I fear.
When I became a Divorcee I had to decide what that meant for my future. For me it meant "freedom" or "return" (to my sense of self.)
Notice that we have no word in American English for "daughter left behind" like we do "widow(er)."
Perhaps it just is.
While I agree with your general premise that people need to find an identity outside of work, I do not believe AI will make any jobs truly obsolete.
AI as it currently exists is extremely flawed, extremely expensive to develop, and has few prospects of making actual revenue for the companies that have invested in it. AI is essentially a collection of glorified chat bots. And it’s circling the drain. Its usefulness has been significantly exaggerated and companies who have laid off workers to use AI instead have been seeing the detrimental effects and are beginning to backtrack.
To assume that within ten years AI will replace lawyers is really quite delusional. And it is absolutely not a good idea to rely on it for research, or therapy (!), or even take anything it “says” at face value because it regularly and demonstrably makes things up.
If anything, the effect AI will have on the upcoming generation is that it will take away their ability to think critically or to develop any real work ethic. It is robbing them of an education and teaching them to rely on a faulty system.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t use AI, but we absolutely have to recognize its very real limitations and do our due diligence when we use it.
Thanks for reading, Hayley. As I state in the post:
"Which brings me to this... this post isn't about AI taking jobs. This post is about AI taking identities."
My post wasn't actually making predictions about whether AI will or won't replace specific jobs. It was about what happens to people's identity when their professional role suddenly becomes uncertain or devalued. That's already happening, regardless of whether those fears are technically justified.
I do want to counter on a few of your specific points...
"AI won't make any jobs truly obsolete" History suggests otherwise. Telephone switchboard operators, elevator operators, bowling pin setters, and hundreds of other roles disappeared when technology advanced. The question isn't whether jobs will become obsolete, they will, but which ones and how quickly.
"Companies are backtracking on AI" Some are, but the trend isn't reversing. Goldman Sachs reports that generative AI could expose 300 million full-time jobs to automation globally, and McKinsey estimates that by 2030, 375 million workers may need to switch occupational categories. Even if these estimates are 50% wrong, that's still massive disruption.
"Assuming AI will replace lawyers in ten years is delusional" Unfortunately, legal AI isn't a future prediction. It's already here. Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and Harvey AI are currently doing contract review, legal research, and document analysis. Will AI replace all lawyers? Probably not. Will it fundamentally change what legal work looks like and who gets hired to do it? Yep. That's already happening.
"It will rob the next generation of critical thinking" This exact argument was made about calculators, computers, and search engines. Whether AI does this depends entirely on how we choose to integrate it, not on the technology itself. I would say that AI has enhanced my own critical thinking skills because of the way I choose to work with it (it requires higher order thinking skills to get the most out of it).
But we do agree! Your last line - "we absolutely have to recognize its very real limitations and do our due diligence when we use it" - is spot on.
The real question my post was pondering was about the human experience of identity collapse, which is something midlife women have been navigating for decades, and something the broader culture is about to experience at scale.
Thanks for helping me procrastinate today. 🤣
Hi Lisa-Marie, thanks for engaging. I think the topic of identity collapse among midlife women is interesting enough to explore without bringing AI into it.
That said, a couple of counterpoints: Yes, past technology has made jobs obsolete. But by making a parallel between AI and telephone switchboards, you are suggesting that AI solves a specific problem effectively. That is yet to be demonstrated.
As I mentioned previously, AI models are notoriously faulty. They regularly return incorrect answers, and as demonstrated by this recent study from METR.org (https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/), actually *adds* time and effort to a programmer's job. I would say it's likely the same with other jobs.
For example, in 2025 alone, more than 200 cases have been documented of "AI-driven legal hallucinations" such as "fictional case citations." Lawyers are trying to take shortcuts by using AI and are being called out for the significant mistakes inherent in their arguments. (https://www.joneswalker.com/en/insights/blogs/ai-law-blog/from-enhancement-to-dependency-what-the-epidemic-of-ai-failures-in-law-means-for.html?id=102l04x).
You are right that calculators and computers enable and enhance our capabilities as humans. But calculators and computers do not regularly return "hallucinations" or assert that an incorrect answer is correct. It does not matter how you craft your prompt to an AI chatbot, it still frequently returns incorrect answers. To accept AI outputs as fact without doing your due diligence is to lack critical thinking. Calculators cannot lie the way AI can.
Many economic signs are pointing to a bubble similar to the dot-com one of the early 2000s during which any company with a connection to "The Internet" was readily hyped and invested in. In a similar vein, companies today are trying to get on the AI money train in any way they can. But pretty soon it will no longer be sustainable. Many of the big players have halted development of data centers intended for AI projects. Apple recently announced that they are no longer actively investing in developing new AI tech. NVIDIA, Microsoft, and ChatGPT are passing around the same $100b and passing it off as revenue. There is no feasible plan among these companies to recoup their investment in AI, let alone actually make money off of it.
If you think about it, AI has been around for a long time already. It has just been repackaged and marketed as something new. I mean, no one was expecting Alexa or Siri to change the world and make people's jobs obsolete back when they came out in the early 2010s. That is the exact same tech that AI runs on today.
We are all in for a very rude awakening when the AI bubble finally bursts.
Hayley, I think we have fundamentally different readings of what's happening, and that's fine.
You see a bubble about to burst. I see infrastructure investment for transformative technology. Apple's "not actively investing" claim is PR spin while they integrate AI across their entire product line.
The comparison to Alexa and Siri is... not accurate. Those were voice-activated search interfaces. Current AI models can write code, pass bar exams, diagnose medical conditions from imaging, and engage in complex reasoning. Saying "it's just been repackaged" is like saying smartphones are just repackaged landlines. The underlying technology is categorically different.
The hallucination issue you're focused on is a current implementation problem, not a ceiling on the technology. Every technology has an awkward adolescence. The iPhone couldn't copy/paste at launch.
But I do agree that current AI absolutely requires critical thinking and due diligence. Anyone treating it as infallible is being reckless.
Where we differ is I think this technology is following the same trajectory as every other general-purpose technology in history... awkward beginning, rapid improvement, fundamental transformation of how we work. You think it's overhyped vaporware that will collapse.
We'll know who's right in a few years. In the meantime, my work is about helping women navigate identity transitions regardless of whether those transitions are driven by AI, menopause, divorce, or career changes. The identity work remains the same.
Thanks for the robust discussion.
Hey, I appreciate the discussion. Always happy for push back to help me better develop my points.
AI as we know it (primarily LLMs) are glorified chatbots just like Alexa and Siri. They are just trained on much larger databases and with more robust algorithms. They have to be continuously maintained and updated. They don’t write anything, they don’t use logic and reasoning the way humans do, they use existing data to predict answers.
Here’s an interesting article about ChatGPT’s “passing” the bar exam: https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/gpt-4-didnt-ace-the-bar-exam-after-all-mit-research-suggests-it-barely-passed
Here’s a link to a Reddit thread explaining a Bloomberg article that demonstrates a bubble about to happen: https://www.reddit.com/r/ItaliaPersonalFinance/comments/1o2wvwz/come_si_sta_formando_la_bolla_ia_secondo_bloomberg/?tl=en
You're conflating two separate issues: financial bubble dynamics and technical capability. These are independent variables.
Bubbles happen when money moves faster than value creation. The technology can be completely real and transformative while also being financially overvalued in the short term.
A couple of random article links don't support the more robust research in this space.
Thanks for the convo, but I want to stop procrastinating and get back to my writing, and we're clearly operating from different information bases. I'll leave it here.
Oh my goodness, I loved this post so much. And every time I freak out about AI now I’m gonna remind myself that I’ve been here before, figuring out who I am, many times. Thank you for this profound perspective shift.
You're a heroine, Kendra. And Heroine's have got mad skills. 😊
Thank you for the reminder 💞💞💞 back at you
Thank you for this and well articulated. I struggle with the over analysis of what our future with AI holds and feel worried for my daughters’ places in that world. In reality we always adapt and evolve and keeping an open, joyful and pragmatic view throughout is key. Just downloaded your questbook and excited to give it a try!
Forging your heroines compass. Excited to check it out!
That’s a fun one. Let me know what you think.
Yay, Grace! Thanks for ordering. Which one did you start with? I'd love to hear what you think.
What AI can never do, or be better at… mothering. It will never be able to replace the warmth of my embrace, the food that I lovingly place on the table, the encouragement when they try to do something hard, the safety of home. Our mistake is in thinking that our identity is wrapped up in what we do, instead of who we are. AI can never replace human relationships or acts of love and service.
A month ago, I made my granddaughter a princess mermaid dress. She picked the fabric and told me what she wanted it to look like. Sure, we could have bought it on Amazon for cheaper and had it delivered… but we made memories together, going to the store, her explaining how she wanted it to look, me sending her pictures of the process, until she finally got it in the mail…. AI can never replace this. It’s not about the job, it’s about the humans in your life.
This post was fucking fantastic and gives me hope, both for the world, but also for myself. I am just now approaching midlife and have found myself asking this exact question- who the fuck am I? I’ve not figured it out yet, I’m scared shitless honestly of what happens from here, but I’m trying to stay positive and see it as an opportunity 🥹
It's you Call to Adventure, Jewel! Such an exciting time. Check these out, if you like. They will help: https://www.heroinesadventure.com/questbooks
Thank you so much, I’m definitely going to check these out!
The career math on this isn’t great. And that’s what we know now. In a decade?
In a decade we will need Universal Basic Income. I am convinced of it.
Probably sooner than that!
Incredible piece. And I am soooo happy for your daughter!
Me too, Suzanna! 😊
This was a GREAT article. Thank you!
This is beautifully written and I can really see how it would resonate for a lot of women. I think I’m sitting with a bit of a reaction to it though, a little triggered 😂 though I know that’s mine to hold.
I didn’t have the marriage, kids, or high-flying career to lose (toxic ex and AI - like how you pointed out made it so freelance writing gigs dried out), so sometimes when I read reflections like this I wonder where people like me fit into the conversation about identity and reinvention.
I know everyone’s path is different but your piece made me want to name that feeling as it came up. Thank you!
I get it, Kelly. It’s a lot. I think we are probably all feeling a little triggered by what’s probably coming (and what’s arrived so far). If you don’t mind sharing your reaction, I’d be interested. What does triggered feel like? And why do you not feel like you have a place in this conversation. All women do!
I remember the first time I listened to my identity. I had been an architect, and due to my family choices, was no longer eligible or willing to meet the requirements for registration. I was still young and it hurt. What got me through was realising how lucky I was - I realised most men wouldn’t lose theirs until retirement, when their ‘identity’ and expectations would be perhaps too rigid.
My anecdotal experience amongst my friend group is that men have a harder time at retirement than women. I would speculate that's because women are forced to address changing role-based identities more frequently.
I’m not surprised, although I wonder if that will change as more women spend time in the traditional workplace. You are not the only’ ruminating about the future of humanity’.
Fat fingers. Lost my identity
Thank you for this thoughtful post. It has caused me to think back on the many identity shifts and reinventions I have undergone, and how women become practiced at this. Thank you again for doing what you do.
Thanks for reading. I'm glad it resonated, Lea.
Wow.