Outside In | How ageist stereotypes and prejudices harm the world and its economies, not just the elderly
- Ageism is costing societies billions, not just because negative stereotyping leads to increased health care costs but also because older people are being prematurely pushed out of the workforce into dependency
Many decades ago, with my three-year-old daughter in hand, I travelled to Cornwall to introduce her to a friend. As we arrived, my friend’s fragile octogenarian mother opened the door to welcome us. My daughter paused and, without a blink, asked: “Why are you so old?”
There is something deeply hard-wired about ageism. But, at the same time, the idea is complex, confusing and very relative.
I remember visiting my parents in Britain a few years ago. They were then in their 80s. Over breakfast, they apologised that they would be out that afternoon. I asked where they were going. “Oh, just down to church to make tea and cakes for the old people,” mum said, without an iota of irony. For many of the world’s elderly, age is how you feel, not a number.
But ageism is apparently one of life’s most damaging prejudices, and one of its least visible, according to a new global report on ageism, published jointly by the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the UN Population Fund. It has launched a new initiative, the 2021-2030 Decade of Healthy Ageing, and is working towards a UN convention on the rights of older persons.
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