WHERE DO MIDLIFE WOMEN HAVE IT BEST?

We talk to women from around the world

We were swimming in a heated lido, on a balmy winter’s day, when my friend suddenly flipped over on to her back and smiled up at the blue sky. ‘Has it ever struck you,’ she said, ‘that this is as good as it gets when you’re 50-something? We really do have a fabulous deal.’

Susie and I both have children who are pretty much off our hands, and we have interesting and fulfilling work. We’re both married, but earning our own money gives us choices, and we have more money than we used to have for yoga breaks and weekends away, often with groups of friends, sometimes with our partners. Neither of us has any plans to retire, and we both expect to be economically and physically active for most of the next two decades. And after many years of feeling frazzled over the demands of young children, our lives feel much more balanced, hence our trip to the lido.

Fulfilment always comes down to a package; it includes having choices, opportunities, working hard and being lucky. And for women who’ve had these, the UK isn’t a bad place to live the second half of your life. Right now we’re seeing a number of campaigns to give women pay parity, and give older women the recognition they deserve in the workplace.

How, though, does our experience in the UK compare with that of women in other parts of the world? I travel a lot with my work and I’m always intrigued by the lives of women my age. According to the most recent World Economic Forum report on gender disparity, which provides an important snapshot of women’s lives around the world, Iceland is the best place to be a woman right now. The UK is at number 15; Sweden is at number five; France is 11, the US is 49, and Japan is 114. So how true are these figures? We spoke to five women in their 50s in these countries and asked them how it feels to be the age they are in the place they live.