Unless you die young, everyone ages, willingly or not. Consider the alternative.
The CIA World Fact Book lists the estimated average life span for Americans as 81 years for women and 76 years for men. The median population age will steadily increase and then peak in 2035, driven by the aging of the large Baby Boomer population born after World War II (1946 to 1964).
As the bulk of the American population becomes older, one might expect that there would be a sort of ‘Renaissance of Age ’—a re-welcoming of age as a positive societal resource, as it was in pre-patriarchal cultures, and yet we still see rising levels of ageism.
The term ageism was defined in 1969 by gerontologist Robert Butler, M.D., author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book entitled “Why Survive: Being Old in America” as: “A process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender, old people are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills.”
Some of this age-related backlash may be fueled by the Great Recession and financially ailing social programs financed by the younger generation who may never see any return benefit from them; but much of it is simply a continuation of our youth-obsessed culture, which no longer fits the society it belongs to.
Age: Then and Now
Historically, elders in agrarian societies were highly regarded for their wisdom and experience; they were also the keepers of their cultural traditions and history, as this knowledge was passed from generation to generation verbally. These roles were eliminated with the arrival of the printing press and the industrial revolution, which did not foster extended families living together on homestead farms.
In their Journal of College Student Development article, “Have College Students ’ Attitudes Toward Older People Changed?” psychologists Susan Schwalb and William Sedlacek submit that America ’s philosophy toward material things appears to be represented in its attitude toward its people. Waste is an intrinsic part of our lifestyle— we tend to throw out the old rather than recycle, repair, and reuse. The predominant belief is that there is little value in what has aged, except for perhaps antiques that are in pristine condition. This is reflected by the media ’s use of the rarely bald or wrinkled “young-old” to represent persons of age, and likely has its roots in our fear of death, and of the aging that ultimately leads to death. As a culture, we are afraid face our own mortality.
Ageism in the Media
There is an apparent ‘sweet spot ’ of age between 21 and 29—a span of eight or nine years, wherein one is not too young to be denied privileges and has not yet reached the first level of stigma (of “thirty-something”). During this time, an individual is relatively immune to the consequences of age. And while it is true that children often experience ageism – there is little shame or stigma toward the young and also a much shorter period of time that they will endure the ageism of youth.
With each successive decade comes a greater level of stigma, which is compounded by the media and advertising. Ads featuring older, lined faces being magically transformed via computer generated graphics into young, lineless faces by using a promoted product are exceedingly common on the Internet and in magazines. I wouldn ’t be surprised if one popped up beside these very words.
In her article, “Ageism: The Equal Opportunity Oppression” in Psychology of Women Quarterly, psychologist Jean Chrisler says it best:
“Every day advertisers exhort us to “defy aging” by using various lotions, exercise programs and cosmetic surgeries or tell us that we are only as old as [we] feel… All these programs can do is to help us to “pass” as younger than we are. To say that we feel younger than we are, or to refuse to report our age accurately…is to collude in the oppression…”
The continuous message is that age is a problem that needs to be remedied or fixed. It is interesting that while it would be considered bizarre for an ad to promote a product to obscure the evidence of growing up in a child; our culture is desensitized to the similar experience of ads promoting products to obscure the evidence growing older in an adult.
The popular 2011documentary, “Miss Representation”, discusses the misrepresentation of women in the media, as well as the underrepresentation of persons of age, and suggests that there has been a kind of “symbolic annihilation” of persons of age from the media—especially older women. While some older male protagonists exist, older female protagonists are extremely rare.
Age Bias in Employment
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) makes it illegal to discriminate against those 40 or older regarding any term or condition of employment, including recruitment, hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, assignment and training. It also prohibits harassment of those over 40, prohibits retaliation for opposing discrimination, filing EEOC charges or cooperating with an internal investigation or litigation.
The ADEA also makes it illegal for employment notices to contain age-related preferences, for example: “Seeking applicants “age 25 to 35” or “recent college graduates”. It makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of age, unless the employer can prove age is a bona fide occupational qualification.
The economic downturn has had a devastating impact upon many older employees; many have lost 401k investments, pensions and retirement healthcare benefits. Regardless of the ADEA, it seems that age discrimination is as rampant as ever. Older workers, hit hard by layoffs and job losses, filed a record-high number of age discrimination complaints in 2008: approximately 24,600 charges were filed, up 29 percent over the previous year.
Going Back to School
So what is an older worker to do? Often the solution attempted by persons of age is to re-school and re-tool in order to acquire new skills, and hopefully, gainful employment. However, while lifelong learning is preached throughout contemporary American society (mostly to stave off the ever-feared impending memory-loss) age-related discrimination at universities is exceedingly common.
A Juggling Act
While accommodating work-life demands has become more acceptable for employers presently, coordination and flexibility of course demands with life demands of the older student is not addressed by many universities and the resulting workload can be overwhelming to an older working-parent-student.
The older student faces an ongoing juggle of responsibilities: parenting, course load demands and work, resulting in the view of educational flexibility as extremely valuable. However, with reductions in funding, the number of available classes and scheduling will likely become ever more restricted and class sizes larger. Offering night classes (with no equivalent day-classes) is often the only solution offered. However, that assumes that all older students work daytime hours. If an older student works nighttime hours and is unable to change this situation, that will preclude him/her from attending and is thus exclusionary
Some colleges allow the testing of students for credit in order to determine experience-gained knowledge, however the subject areas available for testing are limited and this testing is often viewed less than favorably by educational institutions, if it is available.
Language Bias on Campus
In spite of the glut of older students, universities are challenged to find appropriate ways to describe these students because of the negative connotation often attributed to the word “old”. Words such as: “returning”, “mature”, or “adult” student are often used. However, referring to “returning” or going “back” to school in university promotional materials implies that older students must have (or should have) started a college degree at some earlier point in their adult lives (which is a classist assumption) and might shame and discourage those that did not previously attend; resulting in a less successful promotional campaign for the university.
“Mature” or “Adult” student is confusing and could be perceived as somewhat denigrating toward the younger as well as the older students. Are the younger students not mature or adult? The use of “mature” or “adult” might actually add to stigma, because it appears to put down the younger students. It is a dilemma. “Non-traditional” student is likely the most innocuous term or simply “older student”.
What is in a Word? Everything
Having the courage to use the word “older” means we neither fear nor are ashamed of what old represents in terms of a human being. “Older” is a comparative term, however, “old” might be perceived as judgmental. The question should be, however: Why it is necessary, outside of promotional circumstances, or to provide support against age-bias, is it necessary to distinguish between the older student and the younger student at all?
Graduate School: an Academic Glass Ceiling
With less funding available for graduate programs competition is exceedingly fierce, especially in popular programs. Often older students with jobs and children cannot uproot to new locations for graduate education or when a spouse is held down by a hard-to-find job that is necessary to support the family. If that is the case, the option of graduate education may simply not be available to older students that are unable to relocate, regardless of merit.
In the Workplace
As a business-owner or manager:
Set precedent as to how age harassment is handled.
Train interviewers in diversity, equal employment and the ADEA
Work toward an inclusive environment and age-friendly culture
As an Employee:
Challenge age-related bias when you encounter it, and report harassment
At the University
Ask About:
Flexible class scheduling
Online or hybrid courses
Testing opportunities for experience
Mentoring programs for older students intent upon grad school
A program to break the graduate academic glass ceiling
Question:
Instructors that use biased language and age-related assumptions
In the Media
Challenge ageist ideas in your blog or vlog
Speak out and make your preferences known when reviewing and rating films online
Making ChangeAt the Workplace
As a business owner, manager, or human resources manager, it is important to set policy and precedent regarding how the harassment of older employees is handled by the organization. The next step for an employer is to ensure that all management or anyone else who will be interviewing applicants is trained in diversity and the all equal employment and discrimination laws related to age, and otherwise, and to ensure that an employment ad is never placed that specifies age, date of birth or anything that might be construed to reference age. Simultaneously, the goal of human resources management is to continuously work toward an inclusive environment and an age-friendly corporate culture that utilizes and recognizes the value of older employees.
Not doing so can be costly. $82.8 million was recovered for those who pursued ageism claims with the EEOC at the time of the economic crash in 2008. This number does not even include monetary benefits obtained via litigation, but age discrimination also carries other consequences than just the monetary costs incurred by firms. When age discrimination is present, the firm is missing out on opportunities to capitalize on the unique characteristics of their employees. This is a loss that cannot be assigned a cost.
Making Retraining More Attainable
In recruiting more students, universities might consider offering more flexible class scheduling opportunities. Although funding may not be immediately available, this could be done as a type of investment weighing the cost of borrowed funds against the returns increased enrollment might bring. The most cost-effective method, given funding cuts, would be online courses. Hybrid courses might be considered that include classroom-based instruction periodically, in addition to online coursework.
Expanded testing opportunities for experience gained knowledge would be a valuable and inclusive method to affirm the additional knowledge that older students may have, and that is generally not valued or acknowledged by our culture.
Professorial and instructional-staff play an important role in influencing younger student attitudes regarding age. Using non-biased language and refraining from verbalizing age-related assumptions regarding students in the classroom (whether in reference to one ’s own age, or regarding students ’ personal or professional life status, eg, living with parents, marital status, retirement issues, etc.) avoids the exclusion of the older student.
Unless it is absolutely relevant to the discussion at hand, it is not necessary to reference age. The power position of the instructor in the classroom is important to setting the example for age-bias-free communication and attitudes. Universities might also consider providing a mentoring program via existing support organizations to assist older students who are intent upon grad school to learn the ins-and-outs of academia—from research to procedural information. An affirmative action type program to break the academic glass ceiling for older students might also a consideration.
Age in the Media
From a marketing perspective, the demographics of this country have changed. The Boomers that represented the bulk of marketing profit years ago are now in their 60 ’s and have similarly related interests and needs, and will surely vote with their wallets. Yet somehow Madison Avenue has not entirely caught up with this change.
In television and the movies, actresses are regularly tossed out for a newer model every ten years or so, regardless of whether the public would like to see more of them. Perhaps that is a sexist issue—however one-half of the viewing public is female, hence this is a rather short-sighted perspective in an increasingly competitive market for what little remains of America ’s disposable income.
We live in a wonderful time when blogging and vlogging allow us to make out opinions known (and even poll others about them). Individuals have the ability and freedom to create their own “channels” and essentially, their own magazines. It is within these forums that we can challenge ageist attitudes and assumptions. Perhaps eventually, the media moguls will notice the graying of America, or if they have noticed, perhaps they will eventually respond appropriately. One can express preferences by not purchasing products associated with ageist programming.
Wouldn ’t it be outrageous to see a silver-haired woman of age play a leading role in a movie or television series? I cannot recall ever having seen one, and therein lies the problem.
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these other hubs on social issues:
, Ageism: Solutions for Change www.ozeldersin.com bitirme tezi,ödev,proje dönem ödevi