A is For Ageism: How You Can End Age Bias at Work
Erasing age bias in the workplace is crucial for fairness and productivity.
Age is not just a number. In many workplaces across the U.S. and the world, age is at the center of discrimination, bullying, promotion denial and career flatlining. But it doesn’t have to be.
Denying ageism is not a solution; it is remarkably prevalent.
The Hill reports MyPerfectResume’s Generational Attitudes in the Workplace survey shows “99 percent of workers over the age of 40 reported ageism in the workplace. Seventy-one percent say society underestimates them because of their age, with nearly a third experiencing this regularly, and 95% of respondents said age-related stereotypes have impacted their sense of belonging and inclusion in the workplace.”
“New @Perfect_Resume’survey: “99% workers over 40 report ageism at work. 71% society underestimates them because of their age, 95% say stereotypes affect sense of belonging. #ageism #bias #workplace ”
Diversity, equity and inclusion is also about eliminating illegal age discrimination in the hiring, retention and promotion of older workers. This includes job descriptions or searches based on “recent college graduates,” or “early career” candidates with only three to five years’ experience.
Read more in Take The Lead on ageism
“Because of the value placed on youthful pulchritude for women, we are more likely to be given less credence and fewer opportunities once the physical aging process takes us past the age of 50,” writes Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
Feldt continues, “With the number of Americans age 65 and older expected to double by 2060 and being both healthier than previous generations and less likely to have adequate retirement funds to last, there is no question that there will be increasing numbers of people staying in the workforce past what used to be retirement age. And since women live longer than men, they will be more affected by ageism as they try to remain employed commensurate with their expertise. Plus, since the cumulative lifetime effect of the pay gap is likely to result in women’s lifetime earnings to be half a million to a million dollars less than men (yes, even accounting for time out for children), their financial resources will be stretched even further.”
“Gloria Feldt: Since women live longer than men, they will be more affected by ageism. The cumulative lifetime effect of the pay gap is likely to result in women’s lifetime earnings to be 1/2 mm to $1mm less than men’s.” @takeleadwomen #paygap #fairness #genderequity #ageism ”
Of course with the economic denials, ageism is more than comments in zoom meetings about needing naps, or questions about leaving early at work events.
Read more in Take The Lead on silver hair discrimination
According to The Hill, a separate survey of 1,000 adults aged 50 and over revealed “73 percent feel as though they’ve been treated as if their best years are already over. And 62 percent feel written off professionally because of their age.”
The report shows, “86% stated that older employees are targets for bullying, with 92% reporting feeling pressure to hide their age and downplay their experience to avoid negative perceptions.”
Overtly discriminatory comments, policies and practices are illegal, and can be cause for lawsuits. According to HR Dive, “a 2022 court filing showed that IBM executives referred to older workers as ‘dinobabies’ in internal communications; that case was settled out of court later that year. Questions about when a worker intends to retire have similarly led to lawsuits.”
Read more in Take The Lead on countering ageism at work
In some organizations there is “a major disconnect between older and younger workers, with 83% of older workers saying they felt occasionally disrespected, and 8% saying younger colleagues were dismissive or patronizing,” HR Dive reports.
“There is a major disconnect between older and younger workers, with 83% of older workers saying they felt occasionally disrespected, and 8% saying younger colleagues were dismissive or patronizing,”@HRDive. #ageism #workplace #fairness #discrimination ”
To counter administrative insensitivity, many job search and human resource experts suggest removing dates of graduation and specific calendar years spent at companies from resumes, as well as shifting the language in cover letters to concentrate on recent innovations and outcomes, rather than earlier dated awards and career history.
Success is also an excellent antidote to ageism.
Julia Stewart, 70, founder and CEO of Alurx, a wellness company she created in 2020, was denied the CEO role at Applebee’s, where she was president. She left to become IHOP’s first woman CEO, then acquired Applebee’s for $2 billion to create Dine Brands. She then fired the CEO at Applebee’s who would not promote her.
Read more in Take The Lead on age as a superpower
Yes, older women rise to the top and are leading with great fanfare and success.
In 2025, Forbes released its 100 Most Powerful Women List with “80% of them are over age 50 - and half are over 60,” which they refer to as a woman’s Q3 (third quarter) of life. “Because despite all the stereotypes and inherited stories, fairy tales and films of older women as fearsome, wrinkled crones, the emerging 21st reality is that women in Q3 - the 3rd Quarter (50-75) of our longer, 100-year lives - have never looked better, felt fitter or wielded more power.”
Older women celebrities serve as role models for what is possible for all women at any age. That stellar list of working actors includes Meryl Streep, 75, Jean Smart. 73, Julianne Moore, 64; Michelle Yeoh and Demi Moore, both 62; Sandra Bullock, 60, and Halle Berry, 58.
“Bucking bias: That stellar list of older women working actors includes @MerylStreep, 75, @JeanSmart. 73, @JulianneMoore, 64; @MichelleYeoh and @DemiMoore, both 62; @SandraBullock, 60, and @HalleBerry, 58. @takeleadwomen #bias #genderequity”
Still, as AARP reports, “ A 2024 Transamerica Institute survey found that 35 percent of employers said there is an age when applicants are too old, and many of them identified 58 as the ‘too-old-to-hire’ age.”
Read more in Take The Lead on changing health of older women
Stereotypes are insipid and do infiltrate, particularly in a multi-generational office, organization or workplace.
“The judgement is visceral: older people are tech-phobic, resistant to learning and and set in their ways. Yet increasingly, nothing could be further from the truth, if companies are interested in unearthing it,” AARP reports.
Language, messaging, policy revision, role modeling, transparency and visible efforts to include a broad age range of talent can vastly improve the work experiences of all stakeholders.
Listen to Gloria Feldt’s podcast on age discrimination solutions
“Keep in mind that, as with racial and gender equity, age equity is a cultural issue — if pockets of ageism exist within your organization, you will need to devise plans to address them not only via better HR practice and policy rollouts, but through culture change,” writes Feldt.
“If pockets of ageism exist within your organization, you will need to devise plans to address them not only via better #HR practice and policy rollouts, but through culture change,” writes Gloria Feldt., co-founder, pres @takeleadwomen #fairness”
AARP reveals, “As the demographics and talent realities of our new age of longevity take hold, smart companies are recognizing that 50+ women may be their most ambitious, dedicated and hungry talent segment. When organizations flex their old, outdated, linear career maps, designed for single-earner men of another age, they discover a loyal seam of untapped potential, contribute to retention of talent of all ages, and increase the engagement and productivity of inter-generational teams.”
A step towards age fairness is gathering data of the employee and leadership pool. AARP suggests surveying “what percentage of employees, by gender, are 50+; what percentage of development programs, by gender, are 50+; and what percentage of exits, both voluntary and involuntary, by gender, are over 50.” Exploring and documenting salaries by age and gender is crucial, to see if there is indeed a pay gap by age. Length of time at the company or organization is also critical to explore, as perhaps some older workers may feel forced to retire.
The answers lie in the details and steps to improve and shift ageism out of the office can begin immediately.
Why does this matter? Shouldn’t a person just lay low and retire at 62 or 65 and let younger workers rise in the organization?
The answer is no. Individuals need to have choice in their work lives, whether that is the amount of time during a week or the longevity of a career. Attitudes need to be in sync with the population. While younger employees need to be given a chance, older employees also need to be valued. All can contribute.
Read more in Take The Lead on effects of menopause on work
AARP reports, “About two-thirds of workers 50-plus have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace, according to a 2025 AARP survey. Older job applicants may also be dismissed before they even reach the hiring stage if recruiters assume that their skills are outdated or that they are not up for a new challenge.”
Feldt writes, “In the end, age diversity is as important as gender or ethnic and racial diversity to improving innovation and adding to the bottom line.”
Read more in Take The Lead on cofounder of digital products for older women
Ageism is not just disrespectful and unfair, it is economically unsound. “AARP and the Economist Intelligence Unit found that bias against older workers cost the U.S. economy an estimated $850 billion in gross domestic product in 2018, a number that could rise to $3.9 trillion by 2050.”
And that is a big number.
