To think that ageism is still socially acceptable

[Sparklingsupernova]

NCed for this one. I feel that there's a subconscious, maybe even conscious bias against employing women over 4O. Especially if they're still more junior in a professional role due to a career change etc. We're now really good at spotting sexism (for younger women), racism etc, although much further to go. But ageism is hardly ever mentioned.

It's particularly bad in my industry (tech) where it's young - mostly staff in their 20s and 30s.

Find it quite depressing when we might need to work another 30 years after 40.

This is a huge problem area, now we are expected to work till 67. If you think it's hard trying to get a job at 40+, it's much worse at 60+.
Realistically, the requirement of long hours on your feet rules out many jobs, such as as retail, hospitality etc and other jobs, such as teaching, are just too demanding - very few teachers are still employed full-time after 55, let alone 65. That's partly because it's just exhausting, but also because more expensive, experienced staff are often forced out for budget reasons.
We could look to the Scandinavian countries for solutions, phased retirement and shorter working hours for older employees, but the situation here is becoming untenable.

I think mature women have lots to offer.Thd industry I work in is male dominated so I've hardly ever worked with women and don't know a single one in their mid 50s doing a job like mine.
I agree young people are cheaper so will be happy with minimum wage.

Delphiniumblue I work 55hr wèeks in hospitality I agree some may struggle to do this.Not everyone though.

whatisforteamum* That's great for you. But most of the 65 year-old I know would find that too much. What is your job? Are there many over-60's doing it? My experience is that not only do older people find 55 hour working weeks in physical jobs difficult, they are very unlikely to be offered them if the competiton is a pert 25 year old. All the pubs and restaurants near me have a very young staff profile. I can't remember the last time I saw bar staff over 30. The employers want young, cool looking staff to pull in the punters, not someone's granny behind the bar. I think Peggy in Eastenders is an historical trope now, certainly in London and the South East. Maybe local pubs in more rural areas still employ older barstaff, but it's becoming rarer in my experience.

I think maybe it's more complicated. I work in a female dominated industry and one where older women who have had kids are quite common. Tech is probably the totally opposite.

To some extent I think certain types of people end up more often in certain industries, for reasons that make sense. My work appeals to women who have taken time off to have kids because of the hours, because it's fairly social, it's a helping job, it's possible to start it later in life, and also because it has low pay and so women with a spouse in FT work are more likely to choose it than single people.

But that can also tend to become a little self-fulfilling. Tough manly types might not think to apply because they don't feel they'll fit in, and maybe the people doing the hiring might subconciously feel that way too. And similarly in a tech type role there seems to be a tendency to feel older people will be out of touch.

All that being said, I do think in mainstream culture we tend to think of older people as past it and lacking in worth. Especially women. A lot of it seems to stem from the shift to being youth culture oriented in the 1960s. Even a lot of older people seem to put excessive value on seeming young.

In teaching you barely see anyone over the age of 50. They all get "managed out" after decades of successful teaching. Suddenly they reach 50 and are no longer capable of doing the job. Nothing to do with being at the higher end of the pay scale of course. Unions don't seem to be able to do anything about it and usually just recommend leaving quietly in exchange for a good reference rather than challenging blatantly agist practice.

I was curious about age distribution of teachers in England. These links are interesting.

explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england

2018: 18% of teachers in England (UK) are aged 50 and above (OECD average 34%).

www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/our-research/data-bytes/the-average-age-of-teachers-in-secondary-schools/

I was going to say teaching oo. It's fine if you want a senior role but if you're combining work with parenting, maybe caring for older parents etc and just want a classroom job, which you can do competently and with an authority and experience that much younger colleagues can't always replicate, it's v hard because schools would have to pay maybe £15-20k more for you.

I found it much easier to find a job once I was past childbearing age.

I agree. I'm over 60 and have been applying for all sorts of jobs for over three years, and struggle to even get an interview. Redundancy was offered to our whole department at my previous job - all of us were over 50 at the time - and most of us took it. Looking back they wanted to get rid of all the older people, even though we were the ones who stuck by the business in an horrific new software bungle a few years previously. The younger managers get, the less they seem to see the value in older staff.

Sadly, it's something that pops up all over MN. There are all too many threads where people attribute traits like intolerance, rudeness, racism, refusal to use technology etc to the fact that people are old, whereas the reality is that people of all ages can and do demonstrate that behaviour. There's also some sort of assumption that everyone over around 50 was brought up in an age before computers, TVs, washing machines, cars with automatic gears, antibiotics, disposable nappies, and even functioning hot water systems, and that they all brought their children up on incredibly rigid routines and used corporal punishment.

During covid there were people saying that 40 somethings should stay at home because they were old and they couldn't go for hikes because they were too decrepid!

Yes ageism is a real problem especially when we are expected to retire later.

And yes I was probably disdainful about 40 somethings in my 20s too. But they did seem really middle aged. Things have changed since then - 40 is still young now.

I completely agree @DePfeffoff!

I always looked up to older people when I was younger, especially women in their 40s and 50s who seemed so confident and took no shit from anyone. Now I'm in my mid 40s I love being the age I am and I still look up to many women who are ten, twenty or more years older than me. Mid to-late 30s was the most difficult for me in terms of jobs, but the market was also shit then ten years ago.