Episode 146: Ageism, or Prejudice Against Our Future Selves
/“In the beginning we may have discriminated against women because of their potential to be mothers...[later] we’re discriminating against them because they’re perceived as not as qualified or less likely to be flexible.”
Photo by PeopleImages/iStock / Getty Images
“Most of it is in our head, because ageism starts between our ears. We can re-frame our own narrative about aging.”
This is the second of two shows on what happens as women in the workforce get older. And a lot of it isn't good. Women can experience a double whammy of prejudice that men don't, and it's affecting our bank accounts apart from anything else.
Kate Wiseman and her dog jack
In this episode we meet Villanova University women's leadership professor Terri Boyer, and founder of Magnificent Midlife Rachel Lankester. Each discusses age discrimination (which is perpetrated by both men and women) and suggests ways we can tackle it, beginning with women not buying into the narratives we've been fed over the years. OK, centuries. And we meet late-in-life lawyer Kate Wiseman, who's having a positive experience of being an 'older woman' at the office.
You can also read a transcript of the show.
Further reading:
Rachel Lankester started The Mutton Club after going through the menopause earlier than most. She wanted to create the kind of (positive) content she couldn’t find on being a midlife woman.
Older Women are Being Forced Out of the Workforce from the Harvard Business Review.
Why Are So Many Older Australian Women Becoming Homeless? from Pro Bono.