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What is Ageism?
What is Ageism?
The term ageism, coined by physician and gerontologist Dr. Robert Butler in 1968, refers to the "systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against older people because they are old" (Brownell and Powell 20). Since Butler's definition of ageism, gerontologists have identified three distinct forms of the discrimination: interpersonal, internalized, and institutional ageism.
What are they?
Interpersonal Ageism occurs in social interactions, often categorized by negative and devaluing remarks made about another's age.
Internalized Ageism involves negative attitudes towards one's own age and the feeling of self-worthlessness due to age.
Institutional Ageism refers to laws, rules, practices, and social norms that negatively target individuals because of their age.
Yet, unlike other forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and homophobia), ageism is the only one that discriminates against a factor we will all experience; not everyone is a certain skin color, a certain gender, nor a certain orientation—but everyone becomes older. So then why discriminate against age?
Well, according to age activist Ashton Applewhite, discrimination towards older individuals "takes root in denial of the fact that we're going to get old" and is a way for most to "distance [them]selves from that future state" (Applewhite 16, 17). This overall resistance to aging itself is often a projection of a subconscious fear of dying.
But, It Wasn't Always This Way. What Happened?
But, It Wasn't Always This Way. What Happened?
This rejection of aging is relatively new. In most prehistoric and farm communities, the elderly often earned the highest respect, being considered the "teachers and custodians of culture" (Applewhite 13). Without modern means of rapidly exchanging information, they passed down history to younger generations, obtaining honor and power in society. Furthermore, older individuals were admired in their communities for having spent their lives learning and mastering skilled trades.
However, beginning with use of the printing press in 17th century America, books and newspapers began to replace their responsibility for retaining and passing down knowledge, diminishing the importance of older Americans (Applewhite 13). Further, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America underwent a dramatic shift: industrialization. A new development of mass production techniques, such as the assembly line, "reduced the need for skilled workers," causing "the older worker [to lose] considerable prestige because the skills associated with his craft were no longer valued" (McDonald 75). This rapid change from skilled to unskilled labor made the nation's older workers now seem useless to a productive American society.
Simultaneously, an explosion of consumer culture, new entertainment, and jazz music caused youth culture to flourish in the 1920s; taking on new social trends, the youth became seen as the epitome of freedom and modernity. Yet, as the young became the center of the nation's attention, older Americans were pushed out of the spotlight, seen as unfashionable and unimportant (Applewhite 14). Likewise, the countless new cosmetic products being marketed to a consumer economy heavily stressed the importance of looking and feeling young, such as moisturizers and makeup, further reinforcing a growing negativity towards aging in America. Indeed, commercials for beauty products still promise to prevent aging, and the media constantly portrays the elderly as helplessly stuck in retirement homes, making the natural process of aging seem like a disease that everyone should avoid.
...How Does This Translate to the Workplace?
...How Does This Translate to the Workplace?
This fear and disgust of aging has fostered a prevalence of stereotypes against older individuals in the workplace, including that they are...
Unable to learn new skills
Grumpy and Stubborn
Unproductive
Taking jobs from younger workers
The list goes on.
As you will soon explore, these stereotypes are the driving force behind age discrimination in the workplace, both interpersonal and institutional. While at work, older individuals are constantly spoken down to, bullied for their age, left out of teams and projects, passed up for promotions, and pressured to retire. Worse, countless older employees are fired from their jobs when a company is downsizing, simply because they are stereotypically viewed as unproductive. Then, when they have to find new jobs, many older individuals are repeatedly rejected, just for the position to be filled by a younger employee with less experience—and for less pay. While it may seem like an easy fix to file a discrimination lawsuit, age discrimination is incredibly difficult to prove as the cause of a termination, a layoff, or a rejection. Unfortunately, employers can easily hide these age-related decisions under a mask of 'poor performance' without ever being caught, keeping age discrimination in the workplace largely unnoticed (Danigelis and Regis).
Exploring These Stereotypes
Exploring These Stereotypes
Although perceived as lacking creativity, older workers actually bring a unique perspective into workplace teams. While employers may see young employees as having fresher, more innovative ideas, age diversity is actually crucial in order to create new ideas and products, as it allows for the combination of different backgrounds (Campia and Chernesky 104).
Additionally, rather than being pessimistic and unfriendly, older workers actually tend to have a high "emotional intelligence" and are usually "more understanding of...fostering workplace culture and keeping teams together" (Danigelis and Regis). Thus, rather than bringing workplaces down, older workers often have the skills to lift them up.
In terms of productivity, while older employees can be physically slower, they are actually less likely to make mistakes than younger workers, and they actually achieve the same output (Applewhite 144). The reality that older employees tend to complete work at the same pace as their younger colleagues highlights how workplace productivity is not a direct result of one's age.
While many employers and younger employees may feel that older workers are blocking younger individuals from getting jobs, older employment has actually been found to have the opposite effect. When older workers are employed, younger employment actually goes up, and wages for all employees tend to go up. This is often a result of older workers coming up with new product ideas and being able to contribute more to the economy when employed (Applewhite 151). Lastly, like many younger workers, a lot of older employees must remain working due to strong financial needs (Tileva); thus, it is unfair to assume that older workers do not need these jobs as much as their younger counterparts and are wrongfully remaining employed.
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