Ageism Starts Young

Prejudiced attitudes also rise with the continuing collection of years.  Assumptions are made about how a person should look, and behave and be at a certain age.  On a personal level there are concerns, especially for woman about marriage, especially when they begin to approach thirty.  “I am worried that I will never get married,” says a 29 year old Somalian woman.  Dressed in a skirt and a short jacket, she argues that she has lost a lot of confidence in herself and how in her community, men are always looking for younger women.  Perhaps it is such attitudes that have led famous persons, such as Madonna and others, to take drastic measures to obtain at least the appearance of youth, even if no longer young.  For women and men alike, ageism can affect them as they continue in their careers.  For example, there are workplaces that prefer to employ young workers who they can pay less, and who, they might believe are easier to influence to their line of thinking.  An example is from a woman who was a social worker, but who believes that she was bullied out of her position by her manager who saw that while she gets older and more experienced, she will have to be paid more.  She argues that she was more hard working and dedicated than the younger workers however.  Now, in her fifties she is worried that ageism will prevent her from ever being able to work again, “Once you have become over fifty many work places do not want you to work for them,” she comments.  This is the problem paying workers according to their age and not actually for their commitment and for the work done.  For the younger generations there is also discrimination at work, because many job roles prefer extensive experience in their area of work.  It seems then, that one must be able to obtain much experience at a younger age to be successful.  Some types of employment prefer younger workers because they can pay them less. 

The fight against ageism continues with The Equality Bill, which attempts to end unequal treatment on the grounds of age, passed its second reading in parliament in May.  Robert Brown, The Senior Policy Officer at Age Concern and Help the Aged, argues that “The current Bill does not propose to end the widely criticised forced retirement age,” he adds that “Nor does it contain a clear, legally binding commitment to introduce the detailed rules needed to rid the health service and financial service of age discrimination.  We have been campaigning for a long time now and it’s an ongoing process.  The bill will take the best part of a year to go through Parliament so it’s vital that we keep up our intense lobbying to get the strongest possible Equality Bill out of this process.  Unless these rules are brought in, older people will continue to face unfair treatment.”  We hope that such a bill tackles discrimination for all age groups in society.

While Britain celebrates birthdays and passes laws for each year gained on earth, some parts of Asia or Africa for example, have people who do not know the age of their relatives exactly.  People do not celebrate their birthdays or know exactly when they are born.  Perhaps this should be an evidence for us also, that age is not so important in our daily dealings and lives, and laws should reflect the conditions and personal needs of people rather than whether they are over or under a certain age.