Polish women are open to change, they are very conscious and curious about the world. Women of all ages would like to develop and broaden their professional competences. They are not afraid of changes in the area of work and are ready for "reasonable madness". Particularly interesting is the fact that women of the baby boomers generation (over fifty years old) do not deviate from this trend. They are most open to travel and sightseeing around the world (82%) and to independent holidays (61%). The information results from the latest survey "Polko, dare to change" conducted on a representative group of Polish women by IQS for Promedica24.
Changes and new beginnings
A statistical Polish woman almost twice starts all over again for random reasons such as: marriage, divorce, death of a loved one, fire, flood, economic crisis or collective redundancies. Women with lower education started all over again on average 2.3 times, while those with secondary and tertiary education were 1.6 times less frequent respectively. Interestingly enough, reshaping life is not related to the age of the respondents.
"The survey we conducted confirmed our thesis that Polish women are open to change on many levels. What has interested us particularly is the fact that women in their fifties are not lagging behind, but are even ahead of their younger colleagues and more than they are looking for space for change in life. We have noticed that eight out of ten Polish women feel on average 8 years younger than it would appear from their metric, i.e. perversely saying: the older the younger," comments Agnieszka Niedziela, Marketing Director at Promedica24.
What are Polish women 55+ today?
As the report "Polko, dare to change" shows, as much as 82% of women aged 55-64 are interested in traveling. Interestingly, the desire to explore the world grows with the age of the respondents. In the group of women aged 25-34, only 55% are interested in travelling. However, despite the greatest openness to independent holidays, women of the baby boomers generation are not the type of lonely women and value life around their loved ones. Most women 55+ declare that they have many friends and acquaintances (63%). It is worth noting that in the group of respondents aged 25-34 this number is decreasing - 55% of women declare having many friends and acquaintances. Polish women 55+ are more open to changing their life partner than younger women.
"It is worth remembering that the current 55-60 year olds are women who have consciously survived the political changes in our country and had to adapt their start in adult life to new circumstances. Those were not easy years, the availability of such goods as the opportunity to study, learn foreign languages or travel was very low, so some women regret the missed opportunities. Women of the baby boomers generation will practically always put themselves in the last place, earlier the priority is for them children, home, work. When most of these duties go away, e.g. children become independent, suddenly there is a space for women to do something for themselves: travel, improve their professional qualifications, learn foreign languages" - comments Marta Rybicka, Business Unit Director, IQS.
Since the age of 35, the percentage of women relying on themselves alone has doubled. Independence in decision making and persuasiveness are most characteristic of women in their fifties and of women in their twenties and thirties. Women from the baby boomers generation make their own decisions much more often (66%) than those from the Y generation (women aged 25-34). As many as 74% of 55+ respondents believe that it takes a lot of work to achieve success in life.
Interestingly, more than half of Polish women 55+ declare that they do many things spontaneously, without a prior plan. According to the life motto of carpe diem, nearly half of the women of the baby boomers generation are trying to live. 55+ women want to go with the spirit of the times, they are open to "reasonable madness" - 74% of women aged 55-64 are interested in a haircut change metamorphosis
Open to change. What changes do Polish women want?
Women of all ages are open to change, especially in the professional sphere. They would like to improve their skills and develop their professional competences. One area that women of all ages would like to change in their lives is education: getting an education or learning foreign languages. This is because the aspect of satisfaction from professional life is of great importance for Polish women - 42% of the women surveyed want to find a good and better paid job. Polish women of all ages would like to take care of their health.
8 out of 10 women think you can emigrate at any age. As many as 40% of women declare their willingness to take up seasonal work abroad in a situation where the household budget has to be improved. Nearly half of the Polish women surveyed (43%) would be willing to move abroad for several months. Women also declare their openness to "petty madness" and want to take care of themselves not only spiritually but also visually. Polish women would also like to improve their appearance and get rid of complexes (48%).
"Polish women are open to change, and the changes they desire often revolve around their personal development, work and education. It can be assumed that with their life experience they see more clearly the role of self-fulfilment, they open up to new ones, they want to do things they could not or did not have the courage to do before. Polish women are not entirely satisfied with their appearance. They are ready for a metamorphosis, they would like to improve something in their appearance, feel more beautiful" - Maria Malicka, psychologist, IQS.
As part of the survey, Polish women were asked what they would change in their lives if they had such a chance.
The highest number of women surveyed would like to travel (52%). Nearly half of the respondents (48%) expressed the need to obtain education, change their current major and learn foreign languages. According to 81% of the respondents at any age can be professionally active.
The survey was conducted by IQS on behalf of Promedica24 on a representative group of 400 Polish women aged 25 to 64 using CAWI interviews. The survey was conducted from 5-7 July 2017.
