When Joan, 67, told her doctor something didn’t feel right, she was told it was ‘just her age.’ Three months later, she was diagnosed with late-stage cancer.
Misogyny, it turns out, doesn’t disappear after youth – it just becomes harder to see.
Joan doesn’t exist. But chances are, you’ve experienced a similar conversation yourself or know someone who has.
We know this is true because, as Age UK reports, 52% of women aged 50+ in the UK, of which there are 7.3 million, are concerned about accessing a GP.
Society tends to centre feminism around youth. It focusses on workplace equality, reproductive rights, and harassment. But, as the statistic above alludes to, older women face a double hit when sexism collides with ageism.
14 million women in the UK make up 53% of the population aged over 50 and women’s charity, Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI), knows only too well that older women are too often invisible.
Soroptimists, whose ages span the decades, each tell their own story whether it’s from personal experience or tales handed down from mums and grandmas.
Ageism and sexism have regularly meant that older women are perceived differently across all areas of society, especially in public life, the media and policy – their voices simply fade away.
The Hidden Realities
Women experience later-life misogyny in various places.
Often underrepresented in medical research, women also experience medical gaslighting, with symptoms regularly dismissed as hormonal, menopausal or part of normal aging.
Women are affected by what is becoming known as the ‘gendered pain gap’ with pain commonly underestimated for women when compared to men.
The list goes on. Older women are frequently steered into lower-paid, insecure, or part-time work, whether by necessity or because full-time roles are increasingly out of reach.
The gender pay gap leads to a gender pension gap, which means that women over 65 are typically poorer than their male counterparts.
This can cause issues for older women who lack financial independence – particularly if that woman loses her partner or, as is often overlooked in older women, experiences domestic abuse. Sadly, abuse does not stop once you hit 50 – and, importantly, neither does life in general.
As alluded to, women in older age categories are rarely represented in the media, policy, or public campaigns. On the rare occasion when they are, it is typically via unhelpful stereotyping – older women are seen as frail, scary or irrelevant.
Why it Matters
Gendered ageism undermines the potential, wellbeing, and dignity of far too many women.
We cannot build an inclusive society while ignoring half the population in later life and especially in a world with a growing aging population. It is, therefore, highly important to consider the needs of older women.
What is the Solution?
As an organisation, which holds consultative status at the United Nations, SIGBI recently submitted evidence to the government to drive further gender equality.
As part of this advice, and its wider advocacy work, the charity is calling for comprehensive Gender Impact Assessments (GIA) to become a statutory requirement, to bring about meaningful, sustainable equality across all age groups. And older women remain a priority.
Despite the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), gender equality progress remains slow, patchy, and symbolic.
It is time to move from box-ticking to measurable change. That will only happen with structured, considered GIAs – like those which have been previously established for climate change.
SIGBI has called on the Government to include GIAs in public decisions and to pilot mandatory GIAs across all major departments. But it also encourages all organisations to start thinking about how they too can implement GIAs in their efforts.
Because every day, usually through unconscious considerations, organisations make decisions which adversely affect women and girls.
Final Words
If we want a genuinely fair society, we cannot keep ignoring older women. They deserve to be seen, heard, and valued. It is that simple.
Age and gender should not come with barriers, whether on their own or combined. It is time we built systems that work for everyone – because equality should not have a time limit, especially when misogyny rarely does.
What kind of future do you want to build?
Learn more and stand up for women and girls today: https://sigbi.org/
ABOUT SIGBI
Soroptimist International Great Britain & Ireland (SIGBI), a registered women’s charity founded in 1934, is part of Soroptimist International, a global organisation formed in 1921, born out of the service movement.
The organisation – which has consultancy status at the United Nations – focuses on empowering women and girls to achieve their full potential and works to eliminate barriers and discriminations that hinder women’s progress.
The charity does this through its 248 clubs throughout the UK, Ireland, Malta, Asia, and the Caribbean – over 200 of which are in the UK – and currently has a total of 5,150 members.
SIGBI club members are part of a global movement, Soroptimist International, and are united by a desire to advance the lives of women and girls.
You might also enjoy reading about SIGBI here/
