Are We Losing the Fight Against Ageism?

For the last five years or so, I‘ve devoted much of my professional life to combating ageism. I’ve written three books on the subject, published dozens of posts about it, and joined my local age-friendly initiative. I’ve given talks on ageism and been interviewed by the media on the topic. I was even named a NextAvenue Influencer in Aging, quite the honor.

All of this effort is a direct result of my feeling that a major injustice is taking place and that it’s our responsibility to address inequities when we see them. For me, this is what being an American is all about.

Of course, I am hardly alone in this pursuit. Hundreds of other people are making their voices heard in a similar and passionate way, making it reasonable to say that an anti-ageism movement is in play.

Organizations too, some with massive resources, have taken on ageism to try to create an age-friendly nation and world. The World Health Organization has launched a global initiative focused on age-friendly communities, AARP is famously committed to “disrupt the narrative” of aging, and the United Nations has (correctly) labeled ageism as nothing less than a human rights issue.

Needless to say, these developments are all welcome. Ending ageism, like discrimination based on race and gender, requires energy and determination, as it is deeply rooted in our culture. Contemporary ageism in America is two centuries in the making, I’ve shown, so reversing the tide is no easy task.

The Challenge of Ending Ageism

Despite the significant contributions from dedicated people and powerful organizations, I don’t believe our fight against ageism is succeeding. Unlike the decades-long civil rights and feminist movements, each of which have resulted in real and positive change, the age-friendly movement has been unable to move the needle in any measurable way since its inception in the late 1960s.

To that point, I see little or no noticeable evidence that older adults have gained greater equal rights in the last half-century. In fact, baby boomers like myself are now generally despised by younger generations for allegedly compromising the latter’s future, encouraging a climate of intense ageism to thrive. Even the term “boomer,” which was once respected, is now considered toxic. More broadly, people of age remain seen as lesser individuals in the United States (and much of the world), a strange and ironic thing given the current tipping of the demographic scales.

Why is this so, given all the writing and speaking that have been dedicated to what is unarguably a worthy cause? There are a number of good reasons, a few of which I’ll briefly cite below:

• We’re mostly preaching to the choir. We need to stop talking to ourselves and instead address our messaging to the powers that be—Fortune 1000 companies' top management and lawmakers at the local, state, and national level.
• We’ve identified ageism as a social problem when it’s more of an economic one. For better or worse (I think worse), all roads in America lead to money. To change the narrative of aging in the social arena, we must first change it in the economic arena. This means pressuring big business to be a lot friendlier to people aged 50-plus in both hiring and firing practices through enforceable laws and via consumer activism.
• There’s a lack of leadership. There are many disparate voices speaking out against ageism in different ways, but no one is serving as a focal point of and for the age-friendly movement. We need an ageism czar, and 78-year-old Joe Biden should appoint one.
• There are no financial penalties attached to ageism. Under current laws, organizations are essentially free to engage in what is illegal and unethical behavior. Until courts take ageism as seriously as discrimination based on race and gender and until shareholders and consumers speak out through their dollars, this will continue.
• Baby boomers have largely ignored the problem. In the late 1960s and 1970, my generation changed the world by leading a countercultural revolution steeped in peace and justice. We’re currently living in another golden age of activism, but boomers have failed to step up to the plate regarding the ageism we face every day.

More Work Ahead

So how can we win the war on ageism? Modeling the age-friendly movement on the civil-rights and feminist movements would be a good start. History clearly shows that those in positions of power—lawmakers and management, in this case—are reluctant to change their institutions when doing so threatens the status quo.

The good news, however, is that the real power resides in the people, making it up to us to change the system. We have the votes and the purchasing and investing power to motivate those in the legal and corporate arenas to do what’s right, and that’s the course I think we should take. People can tell their congresspeople and senators to pass laws that protect the rights of older adults, especially in the workplace, or they’ll vote for someone else come election time. They can also tell executives that they will no longer buy their products or services or own their stocks unless and until the company has a multigenerational workplace and recognizes age as a legitimate part of their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and/or corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Aging Essential Reads

Why That Old Clarinet Benefits Your Brain

Exploring Ageism: Are We All Guilty of Age Bias?

We can make ageism a thing of the past if we truly want to, but we have to do much more to make it happen.