Youth is still prized as a superpower in society, including where you work. Research has found that people are more likely to automatically assume you are more ambitious, intelligent and tech-savvy when you are thought to be younger.
But in the workplace, being young or looking young can also be wielded against women.
In a new preliminary study featured in Harvard Business Review, researchers Amy Diehl, Leanne M. Dzubinski and Amber L. Stephenson surveyed 913 women leaders who work in higher education, faith-based nonprofits, law and health care and they found that age discrimination was not just happening to older women. Younger women under 40 were having their experiences and credibility dismissed and discounted because of their age.
The researchers referred to this as a “youngism” bias, which happens when someone’s presumed younger age is conflated with inexperience, incompetence and immaturity. Although there are federal protections against age discrimination at work, they only apply to workers 40 and older. But age discrimination can start much sooner than that.
“Younger women — and those who looked young — were called pet names or even patted on the head, as one 39-year-old woman reported. Young women also experienced role incredulity,” the researchers wrote. “They reported being mistaken for students, interns, trainees, support staff, secretaries, paralegals, and court reporters. Such inaccurate assumptions were especially prevalent for non-White women, such as an Asian higher-education executive who appeared young and was presumed to be in a junior position.”
Diehl told HuffPost that gendered ageism for younger women can be insidious because you may think it’s personal when it’s not. It’s a systemic form of discrimination happening to too many women.
“You think ‘It’s just me. I’m just not old enough. I haven’t served enough time in my career. Maybe my ideas aren’t that good, maybe this person who’s older than me, this…
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