If Not Us, Then Who?
How we can lead in the fight to end ageism.
Have you ever:
—Lied about your age?
—Quipped, “I’m having a senior moment”?
—Thought, "I’m too old to do that?”
If you answered yes to any of these, you have encountered ageism, which is prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination based on age. In these cases, you’ve directed ageism against yourself.
How prevalent is ageism, or as people ask me all the time: “Is ageism really a thing?”
In 2018, just three days into my retirement, I was asked to start what became Changing the Narrative, a leading U.S. campaign to end ageism, which last year reached people in all 50 states in the U.S., and 43 countries outside.
That year, I facilitated 42 in-person reframing aging workshops across my home state of Colorado. No matter what the location — rural, urban, suburban, frontier — I heard a consistent refrain:
“That ageism thing you’re talking about in the workplace? It happened to me, it happened to my partner, it happened to my dad.”
The stories unfolded: Of women living on small amounts of social security and not being hired, despite help wanted signs in windows throughout the Main Street of a western slope town; of a former colleague who had raised millions of dollars for nonprofits not getting callbacks for fundraising positions he applied for; of older people frustrated by having their symptoms dismissed by healthcare professionals as simply the consequence of “getting older.”
Data confirms that these are not isolated stories. Ageism is widespread and tolerated. The World Health Organization found that one in two people globally is ageist against older people. In the United States, the National Poll of Healthy Aging found that 82% of people aged 50–80 experienced one or more forms of ageism daily. A 2021 AARP study revealed a surge in those experiencing or witnessing workplace age discrimination from 61% to 78% over two years.
How does ageism show up in our lives?
We sometimes think that isms are simply a matter of bad actors, but ageism is entrenched in our culture and society.
Internalized ageism is ageism directed against ourselves. Research shows that the older we get, the more likely we are to be ageist — we’ve had more years to absorb the messages around us that aging is bad. If you answered yes to any of the opening questions in this article, my friends, you may have internalized ageism.
Interpersonal ageism is ageism directed against someone else. In the workplace, it may sound like someone stopping by your desk and asking: “When are you going to retire?” Or you might find yourself excluded from meetings, professional development, and new initiatives. The worst form of workplace age discrimination is, of course, when you are pushed out or laid off because of your age.
Ageism in healthcare shows up in many different ways. Your symptoms might be dismissed as simply signs of aging. This happened to me when I injured my knee in one of my more active workshops and was told by my then-doctor: “Well, your knee is getting older.” I had to push for an MRI, arguing that my other knee was the same age. Research shows that as we get older, we are often overdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, and then there is the dreaded “elder speak” when providers start talking to us in a high-pitched voice.
Institutional ageism occurs when ageist attitudes and beliefs become embedded in organizational or government practices and policies. Some examples include:
—High school graduation dates being included on job applications
—Mandatory retirement policies
—Medicare excluding vision, dental and hearing from policies
What can we do about it?
The good news is that there is a lot that we can do to address ageism, individually and collectively. At Changing the Narrative, we work every day to address ageism through evidence-based strategies and campaigns that educate the general public about ageism.
Here’s what research shows is effective in addressing ageism:
- Educate ourselves and others.
Each of us can educate ourselves about ageism. A good start is Changing the Narrative’s Ageism Activism Center where you can learn more about ageism and how to get involved in ending it.
Looking for your next book club read? Consider Dr. Becca Levy’s Breaking the Age Code. In it, Dr. Levy shares the results of her research that show the impact of ageism on our health, memory, and lifespan and shares concrete strategies for how to address it. And because I’m a total Becca Levy fan, we created a free downloadable discussion guide that you can use with your book club or any other group of friends, or others who are interested in learning more about ageism.
2. Foster intergenerational education and connection
When we get together with those who are older and younger than we are, we can change minds and break down stereotypes. When generations come together to share their knowledge and perspectives, people’s attitudes change. It’s eye-opening to realize that both younger and older people are stereotyped and denied opportunities because of their age, and even more eye-opening to reflect back on the things that we have learned from people younger and older than ourselves.
Changing the Narrative has developed a free downloadable toolkit to help you host intergenerational conversations about ageism in your community.
3. Advocate for policy changes
In our own communities and states, we can champion strengthening age discrimination laws, including eliminating graduation dates from job applications and ensuring that the penalties for age discrimination are comparable to penalties for other forms of discrimination. We can advocate that workforce development dollars be used to reskill older adults who have been pushed out of the workforce. We can encourage our policymakers to devote more funding toward training healthcare professionals about older adults and to ensure that older adults are included in clinical trials. We can encourage the areas that we live in to become Age-Friendly Communities and to build intergenerational community centers instead of age-segregated senior centers.
Take Action
Ageism may be rampant, but it is something that we can do something about. I’ve always adhered to the words of civil rights leader Grace Lee Boggs:
“We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.”
When we join the fight to end ageism, we’re not just doing it for ourselves, we’re doing it for our children and grandchildren and generations to come.
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