Gendered Ageism in the Workplace

Yet only 8% of organizations currently include ageism in their EDI strategy.

Is gendered ageism one of the least examined pieces of the diversity and inclusion jigsaw puzzle?

Women could be forgiven for thinking there is no ‘right age’ to be a woman - either too young to be taken seriously, too likely to get pregnant, too precarious and perimenopausal or too old and obsolete. Adding ethnicity or disability into the mix adds an extra layer of bias.

We know that older colleagues often feel sidelined, irrelevant, not worth investing in for training or overlooked for career development opportunities. It’s hard to pinpoint and therefore hard to tackle - but it’s there, and it needs to be unpacked. Likewise, younger colleagues may struggle with being belittled, not treated with due respect and may even feel forced to deal with unwanted advances from stakeholders who are in positions of power.

Lazy stereotypes and generalizations of ‘Millennials’ and ‘Boomers’ do nothing to help facilitate cross-pollination of ideas and transfer of knowledge in today’s multi-generational organizations.

Most of us are also needing to work for more of our lives, in an ageing population, with significant skills shortages in certain areas. Many will choose not to go down the traditional University degree path, and many more will have multiple career pivots and reinventions during their working lives. The Gender Pension Gap is exacerbated by the Motherhood Penalty and colleagues feeling pushed out of the workplace due to difficult menopause experiences. 

In our Gendered Ageism in the Workplace webinar we will unpack all of these topics and more, plus look at case studies of organizations that are tackling the subject in creative ways. 

If you’d like to explore working with me to deliver a session tailored for your organization then let’s chat.