Study: Women Face Ageism Throughout Careers

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Good morning,

Madonna has had to postpone her upcoming world tour as she recovers from a “serious bacterial infection.”

Her manager says she was in the ICU for several days and is expected to make a full recovery. Madonna, who’s 64-years-old, was slated to start her Celebration Tour next month.

We at Mo News wish her a speedy recovery.

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

🗞 AGEISM FOR WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

When we talk about ageism, we usually think of people being discriminated against because of their older age. But some new research shows that women leaders face ageism at pretty much every age and stage of their career.

“NO RIGHT AGE FOR PROFESSIONAL WOMEN”
Researchers wrote in the Harvard Business Review that “with an increasingly diverse and multigenerational workforce, age bias now occurs across the career life cycle.”

As part of their research, they conducted a survey of nearly 1,000 women leaders from four industries: higher education, faith-based nonprofits, law, and health care:

• Gendered “Oldism” (women over 60): Older women said they were deemed unworthy of advancement. Some notable quotes:

  • “While men become wells of wisdom as they age, older women are seen as outdated, harpy, strident.”

  • Another woman said that once she turned 60, she was no longer “worth investing in with training or mentoring.”

• Gendered “Middle-ageism” (women aged 40-60). Unlike previous notions of a middle-aged “sweet spot,” women between ages 40 and 60 dealt with their own issues.

  • One women said organizations decided not to hire women in their late forties because of “too much family responsibility and impending menopause.”

• “Youngism” refers to ageism toward younger adults (women under 40). They say that they were viewed as immature because of their age.

  • Younger women — and those who looked young — were called pet names or even patted on the head. They reported being mistaken for students, interns, trainees, support staff, secretaries, paralegals, and court reporters.

  • This was especially true for non-White women.

The authors of the study also recently published an article in Fast Company Magazine with more of what they found.

Here is their overall summary:

• “The women leaders in our study were considered too young or too old. They were too short or too tall, too pretty or too unattractive or too heavy. They had too much education or not enough or their degrees were not from the “right” schools. They suffered from disrespect and misperceptions due to race, color, or ethnicity. Whether they had children or were childless, the women were expected to work harder than men to prove their worth. Women were held back from leadership opportunities due to being single, married, or divorced. There was no personality trait sweet spot, as introverted women were not seen as leaders and extraverted women were viewed as aggressive. The effect, then, means women leaders are “never quite right.”

IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS?
Kind of. The researchers say that the good news is that there are some “practical steps for leaders to combat this never-right gendered age bias.” Here are four:

1. Recognize ageism in your organization

2. Address “lookism”

3. Focus on skills, no matter who has them

4. Cultivate creative collaborations to encourage learning across age groups.

⏳ SPEED READ

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🗓 ON THIS DAY: JUNE 29

mosheh

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• 1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act, creating the United States Interstate Highway System. It opened the door to the massive expansion of suburbia.

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• 2002: ‘Hot In Herre’ by Nelly reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped the charts for three months, all the way through the summer of ‘02.