CHAPTER 25
Older Women Are Being Forced Out of the Workforce
by Lauren Stiller Rikleen
Susan is a woman in her sixties who has spent decades working in the insurance business. After years of performance reviews describing her outstanding work ethic, her fortunes turned when she started reporting to a woman 20 years her junior. Under her new manager, Susan felt set up to fail: She was assigned more cases and held to much higher standards than her younger colleagues. Susan’s manager issued a formal performance evaluation that characterized her as failing in her duties. Although Susan was supposed to have 90 days to improve, her manager fired her after a few days. Susan has since sued her employer for age discrimination.
Mary is a 72-year-old sociology ...
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