Three cheers for New York City which is rolling out anti-ageism lessons to high school students. Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez, the city’s commissioner for ageing (it’s about time we had one of those here in the UK) is challenging young people’s assumptions that the elderly are “cute, vulnerable and useless”, stopping the use of offensive terms such as “you look good for your age” and – most importantly of all – countering teenagers’ views that older adults are “scary”.
Apparently Disney is the source of this “oldies are frightening” trope; think Cruella de Vil with her shock of white and black hair plotting to skin alive the puppies in 101 Dalmations, or the “old hag” from Snow White who is really the evil queen in disguise. More seriously, a new book here in the UK called Revolting Women, by Dr Lucy Ryan, reveals new research showing how gendered ageism is forcing women out of their jobs. Increasingly now, women come back after maternity only to leave or be made redundant from companies as they hit their 50s in what is being called ‘a second brain drain’. And the cause? Negative stereotypes about older women.
Take this quote from the book by Patricia, a professor: “Within the wider culture there is something that encourages us older women to withdraw, to have lower expectations, to keep quiet, not expect to be noticed. Be unassertive… promoting us is simply not talked about.”
I hear that again and again from the “Queenagers” on Noon, my community for women in midlife. They say they left their job, or were made redundant and nobody cared, it wasn’t discussed, the silence was deafening. Often, this is in organisations that make a big fuss about diversity and inclusion – somehow age is the bit of that which always gets forgotten.
But if we are going to get to gender parity in leadership (which at current rates will take 136 years) then we need senior women not to be whacked or to leave, but to be promoted, to step up, get the top jobs. It’s time. Women have been entering the professions and business in the same numbers as men now for the past 30 years, yet we still only occupy 15-20 per cent of top positions; there are still only eight female FTSE 100 CEOs.
This matters to all of us. By 2050, over a third of the working population in the UK will be aged 50-67 and we are facing a looming shortage of 2.5 million skilled workers by 2030. It is incredibly shortsighted, not to say unfair, to write off a whole cohort of women just because they are older.
Unfortunately, our society is still riven with the kind of sexist tropes which see men as ageing like fine wine while women are seen more like peaches; one wrinkle and we’re done.
I’ve always found ageism particularly stupid; it’s just being negative about your future self. But gendered ageism does serious harm.
Oldies are the future – we’re not the wicked Queen or Cruella de Vil, we’re actually rather fabulous. Be nice, you’re going to need us.
Eleanor Mills is the founder of noon.org.uk – home of the Queenager, a platform for women in midlife
Three cheers for New York City which is rolling out anti-ageism lessons to high school students. Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez, the city’s commissioner for ageing (it’s about time we had one of those here in the UK) is challenging young people’s assumptions that the elderly are “cute, vulnerable and useless”, stopping the use of offensive terms such as “you look good for your age” and – most importantly of all – countering teenagers’ views that older adults are “scary”.
Apparently Disney is the source of this “oldies are frightening” trope; think Cruella de Vil with her shock of white and black hair plotting to skin alive the puppies in 101 Dalmations, or the “old hag” from Snow White who is really the evil queen in disguise. More seriously, a new book here in the UK called Revolting Women, by Dr Lucy Ryan, reveals new research showing how gendered ageism is forcing women out of their jobs. Increasingly now, women come back after maternity only to leave or be made redundant from companies as they hit their 50s in what is being called ‘a second brain drain’. And the cause? Negative stereotypes about older women.
Take this quote from the book by Patricia, a professor: “Within the wider culture there is something that encourages us older women to withdraw, to have lower expectations, to keep quiet, not expect to be noticed. Be unassertive… promoting us is simply not talked about.”
I hear that again and again from the “Queenagers” on Noon, my community for women in midlife. They say they left their job, or were made redundant and nobody cared, it wasn’t discussed, the silence was deafening. Often, this is in organisations that make a big fuss about diversity and inclusion – somehow age is the bit of that which always gets forgotten.
But if we are going to get to gender parity in leadership (which at current rates will take 136 years) then we need senior women not to be whacked or to leave, but to be promoted, to step up, get the top jobs. It’s time. Women have been entering the professions and business in the same numbers as men now for the past 30 years, yet we still only occupy 15-20 per cent of top positions; there are still only eight female FTSE 100 CEOs.
This matters to all of us. By 2050, over a third of the working population in the UK will be aged 50-67 and we are facing a looming shortage of 2.5 million skilled workers by 2030. It is incredibly shortsighted, not to say unfair, to write off a whole cohort of women just because they are older.
Unfortunately, our society is still riven with the kind of sexist tropes which see men as ageing like fine wine while women are seen more like peaches; one wrinkle and we’re done.
I’ve always found ageism particularly stupid; it’s just being negative about your future self. But gendered ageism does serious harm.
Oldies are the future – we’re not the wicked Queen or Cruella de Vil, we’re actually rather fabulous. Be nice, you’re going to need us.
Eleanor Mills is the founder of noon.org.uk – home of the Queenager, a platform for women in midlife