From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ageism, also spelled
agism, is
stereotyping and/or
discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. This may be casual or systematic. The term was coined in 1969 by
Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against
seniors, and patterned on
sexism and
racism.
Butler defined "ageism" as a combination of three connected elements.
Among them were prejudicial attitudes towards older people, old age, and
the
aging process; discriminatory practices against older people; and institutional practices and policies that perpetuate
stereotypes about elderly people.
While the term is also used in regards to prejudice and discrimination against
adolescents and
children, such as denying them certain rights (e.g.
voting),
ignoring their ideas because they are considered "too young", or
assuming that they should behave in certain ways because of their age,
the term is predominantly used in relation to the treatment of older
people. Older people themselves can be deeply ageist, having
internalized a lifetime of negative stereotypes about aging.
Fear of death and fear of disability and dependence are major causes of ageism; avoiding, segregating, and rejecting older people are
coping mechanisms that allow people to avoid thinking about their own mortality.
Classification
Distinction from other age-related bias
Ageism
in common parlance and age studies usually refers to negative
discriminatory practices against old people, people in their middle
years, teenagers and children. There are several forms of age-related
bias.
Adultism
is a predisposition towards adults, which is seen as biased against
children, youth, and all young people who are not addressed or viewed as
adults. This includes political candidacies, jobs, and cultural settings where the supposed greater vitality and/or
physical beauty of youth is more appreciated than the supposed greater moral and/or
intellectual rigor of adulthood.
Adultcentrism is the "exaggerated
egocentrism of
adults."
Adultocracy is the
social convention which defines "maturity" and "immaturity," placing adults in a dominant position over
young people, both theoretically and practically.
Gerontocracy
is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders
who are significantly older than most of the adult population.
Chronocentrism is primarily the belief that a certain state of humanity is superior to all previous and/or future times.
Based on a conceptual analysis of ageism, a new definition of
ageism was introduced by Iversen, Larsen, & Solem in 2009. This
definition constitutes the foundation for higher reliability and
validity in future research about ageism and its complexity offers a new
way of systemizing theories on ageism: "Ageism is defined as negative
or positive stereotypes, prejudice and/or discrimination against (or to
the advantage of) elderly people on the basis of their chronological age
or on the basis of a perception of them as being 'old' or 'elderly'.
Ageism can be implicit or explicit and can be expressed on a micro-,
meso- or macro-level" (Iversen, Larsen & Solem, 2009).
Other conditions of fear or aversion associated with age groups
have their own names, particularly: paedophobia, the fear of infants and
children; ephebiphobia, the fear of youth, sometimes also referred to as an irrational fear of adolescents or a prejudice against teenagers; and
gerontophobia, the fear of elderly people.
Implicit ageism
Implicit
ageism is the term used to refer to the implicit or subconscious
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors one has about older or younger people.
These may be a mixture of positive and negative thoughts and feelings,
but gerontologist
Becca Levy reports that they "tend to be mostly negative."
Stereotyping
Stereotyping
is a tool of cognition which involves categorizing into groups and
attributing characteristics to these groups. Stereotypes are necessary
for processing huge volumes of information which would otherwise
overload a person and are generally accurate descriptors of group
characteristics, though some stereotypes are inaccurate.
However, they can cause harm when the content of the stereotype is
incorrect with respect to most of the group or where a stereotype is so
strongly held that it overrides evidence which shows that an individual
does not conform to it. For example, age-based stereotypes prime one to
draw very different conclusions when one sees an older and a younger
adult with, say, back pain or a limp. One might well assume that the
younger person's condition is temporary and treatable, following an
accident, while the older person's condition is chronic and less
susceptible to intervention. On average, this might be true, but plenty
of older people have accidents and recover quickly and very young people
(such as infants, toddlers, and small children) can become permanently
disabled in the same situation. This assumption may have no consequence
if one makes it in the blink of an eye as one is passing someone in the
street, but if it is held by a health professional offering treatment or
managers thinking about occupational health, it could inappropriately
influence their actions and lead to age-related discrimination.
Managers have been accused, by
Erdman Palmore,
as stereotyping older workers as being resistant to change, not
creative, cautious, slow to make judgments, lower in physical capacity,
uninterested in technological change, and difficult to train.
Another example is when people are rude to children because of their
high pitched voice, even if they are kind and courteous. A review of the
research literature related to age stereotypes in the workplace was
recently published in the Journal of Management.
Contrary to common and more obvious forms of stereotyping, such
as racism and sexism, ageism is more resistant to change. For instance,
if a child believes in an ageist idea against the elderly, fewer people
correct them, and, as a result, individuals grow up believing in ageist
ideas, even elders themselves. In other words, ageism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Ageist beliefs against the elderly are commonplace in today's
society. For example, an older person who forgets something could be
quick to call it a "senior moment," failing to realize the ageism of
that statement. People also often utter ageist phrases such as "dirty
old man" or "second childhood," and elders sometimes miss the ageist
undertones.
In a classic study in 1994, researchers analyzed the effects of ageism among the elderly.
They performed memory tests on three selected groups: residents of
China, deaf North Americans, and hearing North Americans. In the three
groups, the Chinese residents were presumably the least exposed to
ageism, with lifelong experience in a culture that traditionally
venerates older generations. Lifelong deaf North Americans also faced
less exposure to ageism in contrast to those with typical hearing, who
presumably had heard ageist comments their whole life. The results of
the memory tests showed that ageism has significant effects on memory.
The gap in the scores between the young and old North Americans
with normal hearing were double those of the deaf North Americans and
five times wider than those of the Chinese participants. The results
show that ageism undermines ability through its self-fulfilling nature. The study was investigating the effect of the
stereotype threat, which has been explored as a possible reason for memory deficits, though the stereotype threat has been criticized.
On the other hand, when elders show larger independence and
control in their lives, defying ageist assumptions, they are more likely
to be healthier, both mentally and physically, than other people their
age.
Research indicates that older people are stereotyped as scoring lower on measures of impulsivity, activism, antagonism and
openness
while younger people are stereotyped as scoring higher on these
measures. This was found to be universal across cultures and was also
found to be reasonably accurate (varying depending on how the accuracy
was assessed and the type of stereotype), though differences were
consistently exaggerated. Ageism can also manifests itself in perceptions of how dateable one is; which has culminated in terms such as the
sexpiration date, indicating the age after which one is no longer appealing.
Prejudice
Ageist
prejudice
is a type of emotion which is often linked to the cognitive process of
stereotyping. It can involve the expression of derogatory attitudes,
which may then lead to the use of discriminatory behavior. Where older
or younger contestants were rejected in the belief that they were poor
performers, this could well be the result of stereotyping. But older
people were also voted for on a stage in a game where it made sense to
target the best performers. This can only be explained by a
subconscious emotional reaction to older people; in this case, the
prejudice took the form of distaste and a desire to exclude oneself from
the company of older people.
Stereotyping and prejudice against different groups in society
does not take the same form. Age-based prejudice and stereotyping
usually involves older or younger people being pitied, marginalized, or
patronized. This is described as "
benevolent prejudice" because the tendency to pity is linked to seeing older or younger people as "friendly" but "incompetent."
Age Concern's
survey revealed strong evidence of "benevolent prejudice." 48% said
that over-70s are viewed as friendly (compared to 27% who said the same
about under-30s). Meanwhile, only 26% believe over-70s are viewed as
capable (with 41% saying the same about under-30s).
The figure for the friendliness of under-30s is, conversely, an example of Hostile Prejudice. Hostile prejudice
based on hatred, fear, aversion, or threat often characterizes
attitudes linked to race, religion, disability, and sex. An example of
hostile prejudice toward youth is the presumption without any evidence
that a given crime was committed by a young person. Rhetoric regarding
the intergenerational competition can be motivated by politics. Violence
against vulnerable older people can be motivated by subconscious
hostility or fear; within families, this involves impatience and lack of
understanding. Equality campaigners are often wary of drawing
comparisons between different forms of inequality.
The impact of "benevolent" and "hostile" prejudice tends to be
different. The warmth felt towards older or younger people and the
knowledge that many have no access to paid employment means there is
often public acceptance that they are deserving of preferential
treatment—for example, less expensive movie and bus fares. But the
perception of incompetence means older and younger people can be seen as
"not up to the job" or "a menace on the roads," when there is little or
exaggerated evidence to support this. Prejudice also leads to
assumptions that it is "natural" for older or younger people to have
lower expectations, reduced choice and control, and less account taken
of their views.
Digital ageism
Digital
ageism refers to the prejudices faced by older adults in the digital
world. A few examples of the subtle ways in which digital ageism
operates in cultural representations, research, and everyday life:
Generational segregation naturalizes youth as digitally adept and the
old as digital dunces. There is no empirical evidence, though, for a
digital divide between older and younger people, with the former never
and the latter always capable to use digital media; a far more accurate
description is that of a digital spectrum.
The reason for the myth of declining capabilities of older people could
be that many cultural representations have long histories reproducing
images of the life cycle as a mountain, where we peak in middle age then
decline
Older adults' experiences are often excluded from research agendas on
digital media, and ageism is ensconced within disciplines such as mass
communication studies. For example, in a media diffusionist perspective,
the practices of seniors are depicted as either negligible or as
lagging, and the equation of diffusion with individual ownership can
hide practical 'workarounds' such as cell phone sharing or missed calls
used by older couples on fixed incomes.
Ageism is also inadvertently embedded in the ways that we generate
statistics, for example through data collected based on large age
categories (e.g., '60+') foisting anyone over 60 into 'the grey zone'
which obscures differences.
Visual ageism
The term
visual ageism was coined in 2018 by Loos and Ivan. They define
visual ageism as "the social practice of visually underrepresenting older people or misrepresenting them in a prejudiced way".
We are facing a shift from visual ageism characterized by
underrepresentation and the negative representation of older people to a
representation of older age characterized by images of stereotypically
third age older adults (enjoying life and living their
“golden years”),
while older adults in their fourth age (inactive and unable to live
independently) remain invisible. A review of empirical studies conducted
since 1950 in Europe and North America
reveals that print and television advertisements started this
transition towards a more positive visual representation of older adults
in their age during the last decade of the 20th century, followed by
television programs some years later, while older adults in their fourth
age remain invisible.
This is probably due to the increase in third age rhetoric in the
media, picturing older people as healthy and as potential consumers,
enjoying life and living their golden years. Media representations of
older people have moved from visual under- and misrepresentation
(negative images) to more positive depictions
These days, visual ageism in the media tends to come wrapped in the
guise of the positive attributes of third age representations of older
people, while adults in their fourth age continue to be
underrepresented. One possible explanation for this is that healthy
third agers might prefer not to be associated with fourth agers, as they
remind them too starkly of what lies ahead in their own near future.
Although this discomfort or even fear about mortality is undeniably
common, from a societal point of view this kind of (self)ageism is
hurtful to fourth agers as a group and in a sense to third agers as
well, as they risk to become fourth agers themselves one day.
Discrimination
Age
discrimination
is the result of actions taken to deny or limit opportunities to people
based on age. These are usually actions taken as a result of one's
ageist beliefs and attitudes. Age discrimination occurs on both a
personal and institutional level.
On a personal level, an older person may be told that he or she
is too old to engage in certain physical activities, like an informal
game of basketball between friends and family. A younger person may be
told they are too young to get a job or help move the dining room table.
On an institutional level, there are policies and regulations in place
that limit opportunities to people of certain ages and deny them to all
others. The law, for instance, requires that all people must be at least
16 years old to obtain a driver's license in the United States. There
are also government regulations that determine when a worker may retire.
Currently, in the US, a worker must be between 65 and 67 years old
(depending upon his or her birth year) before becoming eligible for full
Social Security retirement benefits (age 62 for 70% benefits) but some
company pension plans begin benefits at earlier ages.
A 2006/2007 survey done by the Children's Rights Alliance for
England and the National Children's Bureau asked 4,060 children and
young people whether they have ever been treated unfairly based on
various criteria (race, age, sex, sexual orientation, etc.). A total of
43% of British youth surveyed reported experiencing discrimination
based on their age, far eclipsing other categories of discrimination
like sex (27%), race (11%), or sexual orientation (6%).
Consistently, a study based on the European Social Survey found that
whereas 35% of Europeans reported exposure ageism, only 25% reported
exposure to sexism and as few as 17% reported exposure to racism.
Ageism has significant effects in two particular sectors:
employment and health care. Age discrimination has contributed to
disparities in health between men and women. Reducing ageism and sexism
would promote improved doctor-patient relationships and reduce ageist
stereotypes in the healthcare industry.
Employment
The
concept of ageism was originally developed to refer to prejudice and
discrimination against older people and middle aged people, but has
expanded to include children and teenagers. Like
racial and
gender discrimination,
age discrimination, at least when it affects younger workers, can
result in unequal pay for equal work. Unlike racial and gender
discrimination, however, age discrimination in wages is often enshrined
in law. For example, in both the United States and the United Kingdom federal
minimum wage
laws allow for employers to pay lower wages to young workers. Many
state and local minimum wage laws mirror such an age-based, tiered
minimum wage. As well, in 1986, the Fair Labor Standards Act was amended
to allow the
United States Secretary of Labor
to provide special certificates to allow an employer to pay less than
the minimum wage to individuals whose earning or productive capacity is
impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency, or injury.
These employees must still be paid wages that are related to the
individual's productivity and commensurate with those paid to similarly
located and employed nonhandicapped workers.
However, paying workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage
was outlawed in New Hampshire in 2015, in Maryland in 2016, and in
Alaska in 2018.
Midlife workers, on average, make more than younger workers do,
which reflects educational achievement and experience of various kinds
(job-specific, industry-specific, etc.). The age-wage peak in the United
States, according to Census data, is between 45 and 54 years of age.
Seniority in general accords with respect as people age, lessening
ageism. Statistical discrimination refers to limiting the employment
opportunities of an individual based on stereotypes of a group to which
the person belongs. Limited employment opportunities could come in the
form of lower pay for equal work or jobs with little
social mobility.
Younger female workers were historically discriminated against, in
comparison with younger men, because it was expected that, as young
women of childbearing years, they would need to leave the workforce
permanently or periodically to have children. However, midlife female workers may also experience discrimination based on their appearance and may feel less visible and undervalued in a culture where emphasis is on maintaining an approved standard of beauty, e.g. 'thin, pretty, White, and young'. However, the same standard could have no effect on male colleagues of the same age.
Labor regulations also limit the age at which people are allowed
to work and how many hours and under what conditions they may work. In
the United States, a person must generally be at least 14 years old to
seek a job, and workers face additional restrictions on their work
activities until they reach age 16.
Many companies refuse to hire workers younger than 18. While older
workers benefit more often from higher wages than do younger workers,
they face barriers in promotions and hiring. Employers also encourage
early retirement or
layoffs disproportionately more for older or more experienced workers.
Some political offices have qualifications that discriminate on
the basis of age as a proxy for experience, education, or accumulated
wisdom. For example, the President of the United States must be at least
35 years old; a
United States Senator must be at least 30; and a
United States Congress member must be at least 25.
The United States federal government restricts age discrimination under the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
of 1967 (ADEA). That law provides certain employment protections to
workers who are over the age of forty, who work for an employer who has
twenty or more employees. For protected workers, the ADEA prohibits
discrimination at all levels of employment, from recruitment and hiring,
through the employment relationship, and through decisions for layoffs
or termination of the employment relationship. An age limit may only be legally specified for protected workers in the circumstance where age has been shown to be a "
bona fide occupational qualification [BFOQ] reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business" (see
29 U.S.C. § 623(f)(1)).
In practice, BFOQs for age are limited to the obvious (hiring a young
actor to play a young character in a movie) or when public safety is at
stake (for example, in the case of age limits for pilots and bus
drivers). The ADEA does not stop an employer from favoring an older
employee over a younger one, even when the younger one is over 40 years
old.
In the UK, age discrimination against older people has been prohibited in employment since 2006. Further refinements to anti-discrimination laws occurred in 2010.
Age discrimination in hiring has been shown to exist in the United States. The
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's first complainants were female flight attendants complaining of (among other matters) age discrimination. In 1968, the
EEOC declared age restrictions on flight attendants' employment to be illegal sex discrimination under
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, Joanna Lahey, professor at
The Bush School of Government and Public Service at
Texas A&M, found recently that firms are more than 40% more likely to interview a young adult job applicant than an older job applicant.
In order to fulfill job postings with youthful staff, companies turn to
recruitment companies to meet their needs. Many sources place blame on
recruitment practices as it is the one way that age discrimination can
go incognito at the hands of others. Sofica (2012) states "A study run
in Washington in 1999 shows that 84% of the recruitment agencies are
discriminating compared to only 29% of the companies that do their own. Dobson states that according to Weisbeck’s (2017) research, "People have a natural bias to hire people like themselves" (p.3).
Lahey (2008) also stated within her research "Since it is more
difficult for workers to determine why the failed to receive an
interview than it is for workers to determine why they have been fired,
firms that wish to retain only a certain type of worker without being
sued would prefer to discriminate in the hiring state rather than at any
point of the employment process" (p. 31). All states in the
US
prohibit youth under 14 from working with a handful of exceptions and
prohibit youth under 18 from working in hazardous occupations. They are
also paid a lower minimum wage and not allowed to work full-time.
Also in Europe, pervasive levels of age discrimination are found in
Belgium,
England,
France,
Spain, and Sweden. Job candidates revealing older age are found to get
39% (in Belgium) to 72% (in France) less job interview invitations
compared to equal candidates revealing a younger name. In addition, In a survey for the
University of Kent, England, 29% of respondents stated that they had suffered from age discrimination. This is a higher proportion than for
gender or
racial discrimination.
Dominic Abrams,
social psychology professor at the university, concluded that ageism is the most pervasive form of prejudice experienced in the UK population.
Discrimination is found to be heterogeneous by the activity older
candidates undertook during their additional post-educational years. In
Belgium, they are only discriminated if they have more years of
inactivity or irrelevant employment.
According to Dr. Robert M. McCann, an associate professor of management communication at the
University of Southern California's
Marshall School of Business,
denigrating older workers, even if only subtly, can have an outsized
negative impact on employee productivity and corporate profits.
[citation needed] For American corporations, age discrimination can lead to significant expenses. In Fiscal Year 2006, the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
received nearly 17,000 charges of age discrimination, resolving more
than 14,000 and recovering $51.5 million in monetary benefits. Costs
from lawsuit settlements and judgments can run into the millions, most
notably with the $250 million paid by the
California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) under a settlement agreement in 2003.
Hollywood
Ageism
in Hollywood, specifically in terms of women, is profound, from the way
youth is praised to the lack of jobs for older actresses. The way youth
is praised reflects directly on the way older women are presented in
the media. President and CEO of the American Association of Advertising
Agencies, O. Burtch Drake, spoke in terms of older women's
representation throughout the media stating "older women are not being
portrayed at all; there is no imagery to worry about." Women over fifty are not the center of attention and if an actress is older they are expected to act anything but their age.
These same women who have been acting since their teenage years, who
have always been told to act their age, now must change the dynamic of
their job by not acting their age when they get to be considered old by
society and the media.
The standards set in the film are fixated upon youth - sexuality,
beauty, physicality. Movies that portray women acting their own age
(i.e. a 50-year-old acting 50 years old) seems exaggerated and
unrealistic because it does not fit the norms associated with women in
film and media.
Women are forced to feel that they must continuously improve upon their
looks to be seen and they can be replaced by a younger model of
themselves. "Silver ceiling" references the new type of ceiling older
workers in the entertainment industry, especially women, are being faced
with. Underemployment of older actresses surpasses that of older actors
because of the typical pairing of older actors with younger actresses
in films.
BBC news anchor, Nigel Kay, found in a survey that "on television older
men significantly outnumber older women by about 70 percent to 30
percent."
An issue amongst older women is that their voices are not being heard,
which is especially true for older actresses in Hollywood. The issues
about employment they are bringing to light as well as the complaints
they have are not being taken seriously and they are being excluded from
conversations about Hollywood and employment.
Because of the limited ages the film industry portrays and the
lack of older actresses, society as a whole has a type of illiteracy
about sexuality and those of old age. There is an almost inherent bias
about what older women are capable of, what they do, and how they feel.
Amongst all ages of actresses there is the attempt to look youthful and
fitting to the beauty standards by altering themselves physically, many
times under the hands of plastic surgeons. Women become frightful of what they will be seen as if they have wrinkles, cellulite, or any other signifier of aging.
As women reach their forties and fifties, the pressure to adhere to
societal beauty norms seen amongst films and media intensifies in terms
of new cosmetic procedures and products that will maintain a "forever
youthful" look.
In terms of sexuality, older women are seen as unattractive, bitter,
unhappy, unsuccessful in films. With older women not being represented
in the media and film industries, specifically in Hollywood, thoughts of
underachievement, ugliness, and disgust crowd the thoughts of older
women as they fail to meet beauty norms. This can cause depression,
anxiety, and self-esteem issues in general.
"In one survey, women reported feeling more embarrassed about their age
than by their masturbation practices or same-gender sexual encounters."
Women are forced to feel that they must continuously improve upon their
looks to be seen and they can be replaced by a younger model of
themselves.
The idea that younger actresses are better than older actresses
in Hollywood can be seen by the preferences of the people who are
watching movies. Movie spectators display discrimination against older
women in Hollywood. A study between 1926-1999 proved that older men in
Hollywood had more leading roles than women who were the same age as
them. There are many cases where leading actors play the attractive love interest for longer than women.
This portrayal of women never aging but men aging can harm not only
actresses in Hollywood but also women who are not in the media.
There are fewer older actresses that get leading roles than young
actresses, this promotes the idea that women do not age and that older
women are less attractive. This can be harmful to women because they
will strive for something that is impossible to have, eternal youth.
What some people think of as old other people may not. An actress
in Hollywood may not consider herself old but can be told she is too
old for a part. A very well known example of this is what happened to
the actress
Maggie Gyllenhaal
at age 37, when she was “turned down for a role in a movie because she
was too old to play the love interest for a 55-year-old man."
When a woman is told she is old she can start to believe that she is. A
woman can start acting as if she is older than she believes because she
internalizes what other people are saying and what they think about
her.
In the film the female body is depicted in different states of
dress and portrayed differently depending on the age of the actress.
Their clothing is used as an identity marker of the character. Young
women are put into revealing and sexy costumes whereas older women often
play the part of a mother or grandmother clad in appropriate attire.
This can include a bonnet or apron as she carries about her matronly
duties. This can lead both men and women to perceive the female body in a certain way based on what is seen on screen.
Annette Kuhn
said twenty years ago that "One of the major theoretical contributions
of the women's movement has been its insistence on the significance of
cultural factors, in particular in the form of socially dominant
representations of women and the ideological character of such
representation, both in constituting the category 'woman' and in
delimiting and defining what has been called the 'sex-gender system'".
Women's bodies are often seen as an object to be looked at and desired
by men. As women get older and enter their post-menopausal years, they
no longer are examples of the ideal feminine model. Added to that is the
idea that females become mentally unstable as they enter their older
years. "They become quarrelsome, vexatious and overbearing, petty and
stingy; that is to say they exhibit typically sadistic and anal-erotic
traits that they did not possess earlier...(Freud 1958,323-24)"
Ageism is not new to Hollywood and has been around since the time of
silent films. When transitioning from silent movies to talking motion
pictures,
Charlie Chaplin
(a well known silent movie actor) said in an interview that "It's a
beauty that matters in pictures-nothing else....Pictures! Lovely looking
girls...What if the girls can't act?... Certainly, I prefer to see,
say, Dolores Costello [a 1920s silent movie star], in a thin tale than
some aged actress of the stage (Walker 1979,132)".
Healthcare
There is considerable evidence of discrimination against the elderly in health care.
This is particularly true for aspects of the physician-patient
interaction, such as screening procedures, information exchanges, and
treatment decisions. In the patient-physician interaction, physicians
and other health care providers may hold attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors that are associated with ageism against older patients.
Studies have found that some physicians do not seem to show any care or
concern toward treating the medical problems of older people. Then, when
interacting with these older patients on the job, the doctors sometimes
view them with disgust and describe them in negative ways, such as
"depressing" or "crazy."
For screening procedures, elderly people are less likely than younger
people to be screened for cancers and, due to the lack of this
preventive measure, less likely to be diagnosed at early stages of their
conditions.
After being diagnosed with a disease that may be potentially
curable, older people are further discriminated against. Though there
may be surgeries or operations with high survival rates that might cure
their condition, older patients are less likely than younger patients to
receive all the necessary treatments. For example, health professionals
pursue less aggressive treatment options in older patients, and fewer adults are enrolled in tests of new prescription drugs.
It has been posited that this is because doctors fear their older
patients are not physically strong enough to tolerate the curative
treatments and are more likely to have complications during surgery that
may end in death.
Other research studies have been done with patients with heart
disease, and, in these cases, the older patients were still less likely
to receive further tests or treatments, independent of the severity of
their health problems. Thus, the approach to the treatment of older
people is concentrated on managing the disease rather than preventing or
curing it. This is based on the stereotype that it is the natural
process of aging for the quality of health to decrease, and, therefore,
there is no point in attempting to prevent the inevitable decline of old
age.
Furthermore, caregivers further undermine the treatment of older
patients by helping them too much, which decreases independence, and by making a generalized assumption and treating all elderly as feeble.
Differential medical treatment of elderly people can have
significant effects on their health outcomes, a differential outcome
which somehow escapes established protections.
In 2017, the
European Court of Human Rights
ruled in favor of Maria Ivone Carvalho Pinto de Sousa Morais, who had
had an operation that was mishandled and rendered her unable to have
sex. Portuguese judges had previously reduced damages to her in 2014,
ruling then that the operation, which occurred when she was 50, had
happened at "an age when sex is not as important as in younger years."
The
European Court of Human Rights
rejected that decision, with the majority's ruling stating in part,
"The question at issue here is not considerations of age or sex as such,
but rather the assumption that sexuality is not as important for a
50-year-old woman and mother of two children as for someone of a younger
age. That assumption reflects a traditional idea of female sexuality as
being essentially linked to childbearing purposes and thus ignores its
physical and psychological relevance for the self-fulfillment of women
as people."
Effects of ageism
Ageism
has significant effects on the elderly and young people. These effects
might be seen within different levels: person, selected company, whole
economy.
The stereotypes and infantilization of older and younger people by
patronizing language affects older and younger people's self-esteem and
behaviors. After repeatedly hearing a stereotype that older or younger
people are useless, older and younger people may begin to feel like
dependent, non-contributing members of society. They may start to
perceive themselves in terms of the
looking-glass self—that
is, in the same ways that others in society see them. Studies have also
specifically shown that when older and younger people hear these
stereotypes about their supposed incompetence and uselessness, they
perform worse on measures of competence and memory. These stereotypes then become
self-fulfilling prophecies. According to
Becca Levy's
Stereotype Embodiment Theory,
older and younger people might also engage in self-stereotypes, taking
their culture's age stereotypes—to which they have been exposed over the
life course—and directing them inward toward themselves. Then this
behavior reinforces the present stereotypes and treatment of the
elderly.
Many overcome these stereotypes and live the way they want, but
it can be difficult to avoid deeply ingrained prejudice, especially if
one has been exposed to ageist views in childhood or adolescence.
Australia
Australia has had age discrimination laws for some time.
Discrimination on the basis of age is illegal in each of the states and
territories of Australia. At the national level, Australia is party to a
number of international treaties and conventions that impose
obligations to eliminate age discrimination.
The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 established the
Australian Human Rights Commission and bestows on this Commission
functions in relation to a number of international treaties and
conventions that cover age discrimination. During 1998-1999, 15% of complaints received by the Commission under the Act were about discrimination on the basis of age.
Age discrimination laws at the national level were strengthened
by the Age Discrimination Act 2004, which helps to ensure that people
are not subjected to age discrimination in various areas of public life,
including employment, the provision of goods and services, education,
and the administration of Australian government laws and programs. The
Act, however, does provide for exemptions in some areas, as well as
providing for positive discrimination, that is, actions which assist
people of a particular age who experience a disadvantage because of
their age.
In 2011, for the first time a position of Age Discrimination
Commissioner was created within the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The new Commissioner's responsibilities include raising awareness among
employers about the beneficial contributions that senior Australians as
well as younger employees can make in the workforce.
Every state in Australia has a probationary plate system for
drivers. This is allowed because the Age Discrimination Act says that,
in some circumstances, treating someone differently because of their age
won't be against the law. This is known as an exemption and includes:
- things done in compliance with Commonwealth laws, including laws about taxation, social security and migration
- things done in compliance with state and territory laws
- certain health and employment programmes
- youth wages or direct compliance with industrial agreements and awards.
Canada
Section 15 (1) of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
states that "every individual is equal before and under the law and has
the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without
discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on ...
age" (as well as other protected classes).
In Canada, Article 718.2, clause (a)(i), of the
Criminal Code defines as aggravating circumstances, among other situations, "evidence that the offence was motivated by ... age".
Mandatory retirement was ended in Canada in December 2011, but 74% of Canadians still consider age discrimination to be a problem.
Nigeria
In November 2011, the Nigerian House of Representatives considered a bill which would outlaw age discrimination in employment.
Philippines
At least two bills has been filed before the
16th Congress of the Philippines
seeking to address age discrimination in employment in the country. The
Blas Ople Policy Center, a non-government organization, asserts that
responsibilities of making a livelihood in a household has shifted to
younger members of the family due to bias against hiring people older
than 30 years of age. The organization also added that age
discrimination contributes to the unemployment rate and acts as a hurdle
to
inclusive growth in the country.
Overseas Filipino Workers returning from abroad seeking to find work in the country were tagged as vulnerable to age discrimination.
United States
In the United States, each
state has its own laws regarding age discrimination, and there are also federal laws.
In California, the Fair Employment and Housing Act forbids unlawful
discrimination against persons age 40 and older. The FEHA is the
principal California statute prohibiting employment discrimination,
covering employers,
labor organizations,
employment agencies,
apprenticeship programs and/or any person or entity who aids, abets,
incites, compels, or coerces the doing of a discriminatory act. In
addition to age, it prohibits employment discrimination based on race or
color; religion; national origin or ancestry,
disability,
mental type or medical condition; marital status; sex or sexual
orientation; and pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Although there are many protections for age-based discrimination
against older workers (as shown above) there are less protections for
younger workers.
The
District of Columbia and twelve states (California, Florida,
Iowa, Hawaii,
Kansas,
Louisiana,
Maine,
Minnesota,
Nebraska,
New Mexico, New York, and
Vermont) define age as a specific motivation for hate crimes.
The federal government restricts age discrimination under the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
of 1967 (ADEA). That law provides certain employment protections to
workers who are over the age of forty, who work for an employer who has
twenty or more employees. For protected workers, the ADEA prohibits
discrimination at all levels of employment, from recruitment and hiring,
through the employment relationship, and through decisions for layoffs
or termination of the employment relationship. An age limit may only be legally specified for protected workers in the circumstance where age has been shown to be a "
bona fide occupational qualification [BFOQ] reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business" (see
29 U.S.C. § 623(f)(1)).
In practice, BFOQs for age are limited to the obvious (hiring a young
actor to play a young character in a movie) or when public safety is at
stake (for example, in the case of age limits for pilots and bus
drivers). The ADEA does not stop an employer from favoring an older
employee over a younger one, even when the younger one is over 40 years
old.
In September 2016, California passed state bill AB-1687, an
anti-ageism law taking effect on 1 January 2017, requiring "commercial
online entertainment employment" services that allow paid subscribers to
submit information and resumes (such as
IMDB Pro), to honor requests to have their ages and birthdays removed. The bill was supported by
SAG-AFTRA's former and current presidents
Ken Howard and
Gabrielle Carteris, who felt that the law would help to reduce ageism in the entertainment industry.
On 23 February 2017, Judge Vince Girdhari Chhabria issued a stay on the
bill pending a further trial, claiming that it was "difficult to
imagine how AB 1687 could not violate the
First Amendment" because it inhibited the public consumption of factual information.
In February 2018, Girdhari ruled that the law was unconstitutional,
arguing that the state of California "[had] not shown that partially
eliminating one source of age-related information will appreciably
diminish the amount of age discrimination occurring in the entertainment
industry." The ruling was criticized by SAG-AFTRA, alleging that the
court "incorrectly concluded there were no material disputed factual
issues, while precluding the parties from acquiring additional evidence
or permitting the case to go to trial".
European Union
Additional protection against age discrimination comes from the
Framework Directive 2000/78/EC. It prohibits discrimination on grounds
of age in the field of employment.
Germany
On 18
August 2006, the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines
Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG) came into force. The aim of the AGG is to
prevent and abolish discrimination on various grounds including age.
A recent study suggested that youths in Germany feel the brunt of age discrimination.
France
In France, Articles 225-1 through 225-4 of the
Penal Code detail the
penalization of Ageism, when it comes to an age discrimination related to the
consumption of a
good or service, to the exercise of an economic activity, to the
labor market or an
internship, except in the cases foreseen in Article 225-3.
Belgium
In
Belgium,
the Law of 25 February 2003 "tending to fight discrimination" punishes
Ageism when "a difference of treatment that lacks objective and
reasonable justification is directly based on ... age". Discrimination
is forbidden when it refers to providing or offering a good or service,
to conditions linked to work or employment, to the appointment or
promotion
of an employee, and yet to the access or participation in "an economic,
social, cultural or political activity accessible to the public"
(Article 2nd, § 4).
Incitement to discrimination, to
hatred or to violence against a person or a group on the grounds of (...) age (Article 6) is punished with
imprisonment and/or a
fine.
Nevertheless, employment opportunities are worsening for people in their
middle years in many of these same countries, according to Martin Kohli
et al. in
Time for Retirement (1991).
United Kingdom
Barbara Robb, founder of the British pressure group,
Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions (AEGIS), compiled
Sans Everything: A Case to Answer,
a controversial book detailing the inadequacies of care provided for
older people, which prompted a nationwide scandal in the UK in 1976.
Although initially official inquiries into these allegations reported
that they were "totally unfounded or grossly exaggerated",
her campaigns led to revealing of other instances of ill treatment
which were accepted and prompted the government to implement NHS policy
changes.
However, in the UK, laws against ageism are new. Age discrimination laws were brought into force in October 2006, and can now be found in the
Equality Act 2010. This implements the Equal Treatment Framework Directive
2000/78/EC and protects employees against direct discrimination,
indirect discrimination,
harassment and
victimisation. Pursuant to the
Equality Act 2010 it is generally unlawful to discriminate based upon age in the provision of goods and services.
Despite the relatively recent prohibition on age discrimination,
there have already been many notable cases and official statistics show a
37% increase in claims in 2009/10 and a further 31% increase in 2010/11. Examples include the case involving Rolls Royce, the "Heyday" case brought by
Age UK and the recent
Miriam O'Reilly case against the
BBC.
Recent research suggested that the number of age discrimination claims annually could reach 15,000 by 2015.
The European Social Study survey in 2011 revealed that nearly two
out of five people claim to have been shown a lack of respect because
of their age. The survey suggested that the UK is riven by
intergenerational splits, with half of the people admitting they do not
have a single friend over 70; this compares with only a third of
Portuguese, Swiss and Germans who say that they do not have a friend of
that age or older.
A Demos study in 2012 showed that three-quarters of people in the UK
believed there to be not enough opportunities for older and younger
people to meet and work together.
The "Grey Pride" campaign has been advocating for a Minister for
Older People and its campaign has had some success, with Labour Leader
Ed Miliband appointing
Liz Kendall as Shadow Minister for Older People.
The artist Michael Freedman, an outspoken advocate against age
discrimination within the art world says that "mature students, like me,
come to art late in life, so why are we penalised and demotivated?
Whatever happened to lifelong learning and the notion of a flexible
workforce?"
Advocacy against ageism
The
Newsboys Strike of 1899
fought ageist employment practices targeted against youth by large
newspaper syndicates in the Northeast of America. The strikers
demonstrated across the city for several days, effectively stopping
circulation of the two papers, along with the news distribution for many
New England cities. The
strike lasted two weeks, causing Pulitzer's
New York World to decrease its circulation from 360,000 papers sold per day to 125,000. Although the price of papers was not lowered, the strike was successful in forcing the
World and
Journal to offer full buybacks to their sellers, thus increasing the amount of money that newsies received for their work.
AARP was founded in 1958 by
Ethel Percy Andrus (a retired educator from California) and Leonard Davis (later the founder of the
Colonial Penn Group of insurance companies). Its stated mission is "to empower people to choose how they live as they age". It is an influential
lobbying group in the United States focusing largely on issues affecting the elderly.
Old Lesbians Organizing for Change was founded in 1987; the
mission of the organization is to "eliminate the oppression of ageism
and to stand in solidarity against all oppressions" through “[the]
cooperative community of Old Lesbian feminist activists from many
backgrounds working for justice and the well-being of all old lesbians.” Their initial meeting was inspired by the publication of the book
Look Me in the Eye: Old Women, Aging and Ageism by
Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich in 1983.
The
Freechild Project
was formed in 2001 in the United States to identify, unify and promote
diverse opportunities for youth engagement in social change by fighting
ageism.
Related campaigns
In 2002
The Freechild Project created an information and training initiative to provide resources to youth organizations and schools focused on youth rights.
In 2006 Lydia Giménez-LLort, an assistant professor of Psychiatry and researcher at the
Autonomous University of Barcelona
coined the term 'Snow White Syndrome' at the 'Congrés de la Gent Gran
de Cerdanyola del Vallès' (Congress of the Elderly of Cerdanyola del
Vallès, Barcelona, Spain) as a metaphor to define Ageism in an easier
and more friendly way while developing a constructive spirit against it.
The metaphor is based on both the auto-Ageism and adultocracy exhibited
by the
evil queen of the
Snow White fairy tale as well as the social Ageism symbolized by the mirror.
Since 2008 'The Intergenerational Study' by Lydia Giménez-LLort and Paula Ramírez-Boix from the
Autonomous University of Barcelona
is aimed to find the basis of the link between grandparents and
grandsons (positive family relationships) that can minimize the Ageism
towards the elderly. Students of several Spanish universities have
enrolled in this study which soon will be also performed in the US,
Nigeria, Barbados, Argentina, and Mexico. The preliminary results reveal
that 'The Intergenerational study questionnaire' induces young people
to do a reflexive and autocritic analysis of their intergenerational
relationships in contrast to those shown towards other unrelated old
people which results very positive to challenge Ageism. A cortometrage
about 'The International Study' has been directed and produced by Tomás
Sunyer from
Los Angeles City College.
Votes at 16 intends to lower the
voting age in the United Kingdom to 16, reducing Ageism and giving 16-year-olds equal pay on the
National Minimum Wage.
The group claims that 16-year-olds get less money than older people for
the same work, angering many 16-year-olds. They additionally postulate
that 16-year-olds will have their voice listened to by older people more
often.
Chilean director,
Sebastian Lelio, created a U.S. version of his acclaimed 2013 film
Gloria. The original film challenges the notion that as women age they become culturally 'invisible'; they may continue to be powerful, desirable, and sexually active. In the 2018 English
remake, titled
Gloria Bell, actress
Julianne Moore portrayed the lead character.
Accusations of ageism
In a 2005 interview, actor
Pierce Brosnan cited ageism as one of the contributing factors as to why he was not asked to continue his role as
James Bond in the Bond film
Casino Royale, released in 2006.
A 2007
Pew Research Center study found that a majority of American voters would be less likely to vote for a President past a given age, with only 45% saying that age would not matter.
Margaret Morganroth Gullette's 2017 book, Ending Ageism or How Not to Shoot Old People, provides multiple examples to illustrate the pervasiveness of ageism and delivers a call to action.
