Study Finds That Throughout Their Careers Women Continue to Face Age Discrimination

A new study in the Harvard Business Review finds that age discrimination affects women of all ages, not just older women.

Researchers surveyed 913 women leaders in higher education, faith-based nonprofits, law, and healthcare. They found that there is “no right age” for professional women. The authors note that “as women age, they are often not seen as valuable or relevant in the way that male counterparts are. Older women in our research expressed that they were deemed unworthy of advancement.”

Younger also face discrimination based on their age. “Many younger women experienced credibility deficit,” the author wrote, “which occurs when women’s statements and expertise are not believed.”

Women in the 40- to 60-year-old age group do not escape age discrimination. The authors note that “one college leader described how some search committees chose not to hire women in their late forties because of ‘too much family responsibility and impending menopause.’ Other search committees declined to hire women in their fifties because they have ‘menopause-related issues and could be challenging to manage.'”

The authors conclude that “we found no age was the right age to be a woman leader. There was always an age-based excuse to not take women seriously, to discount their opinions, or to not hire or promote them. Each individual woman may believe she’s just at the wrong age, but the data make the larger pattern clear. Any age can be stigmatized by supervisors and colleagues to claim that the woman is not valued or is not a fit for a leadership role.”

The authors of the report are Amy Diehl, chief information officer at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Leanne M. Dzubinski, acting dean of the Cook School of Intercultural Studies and associate professor of intercultural education at Biola University in La Mirada, California, and Amber L. Stephenson, an associate professor of management and director of healthcare management programs in the David D. Reh School of Business at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.