JD Williams releases ‘Womankind’ state of the nation report

Online retailer JD Williams has released its latest ‘Womankind’ state of the nation report which aims to highlight how women aged 45 and over are feeling post-pandemic and what their ambitions are for the coming year.

Working in association with Censuswide, JD Williams said it wanted to understand how the challenges of the past year have affected women’s opinions on their career, family, finance, and self-image.

When asked how they are feeling, 39% of women surveyed claimed they felt more confident than ever with almost half saying they were now in their prime. This confidence increased with age to 43% of women aged over 65.

Despite this, the research found that women are still battling body confidence issues post pandemic. Some 37% of respondents said this had declined for them post lockdown, compared to 10% who claimed it had improved.

Meanwhile, almost 70% of women stated that they cared what others thought about them, but this reduced with age.

Amanda Holden, who joined Davina McCall in becoming a JD Williams brand ambassador role last year, said: “The JD Williams Womankind report really underlines just how important it is for brands to empower, celebrate and support women post pandemic as they as they emerge with varying degrees of confidence. This new research shows that grown women do have insecurities and areas of self-doubt. The call to action is to celebrate women’s bodies more and work on that body confidence whatever their age.”

When women were asked about what matters to them right now, family and health was their number one priority followed by almost 60% revealing that financial security was more important to them than love and looks. In addition, over 40% said the past year had given them more enthusiasm for life and 35% said they felt clearer about what they want from life, with around a third focusing on good mental and physical health. When pressed on their key aspirations, 54% respondents said they wanted better physical and mental health while 42% wanted to improve their fitness.

The report also touched on the menopause with some 84% of respondents thinking there should be an open conversation around it, although more than half felt it was still a taboo subject.

McCall added: “Some really interesting insights coming from the Womankind report, obviously the subject of menopause is one that’s close to my heart and its fantastic that the report is packed with plenty of real insight from women on the subject. It’s no surprise that the overwhelming majority of women want a more open conversation around the subject, something I have been trying to normalise for some time. The menopause is something that every woman will experience and should not be considered ‘taboo’.”

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