Overcoming Ageism (HBR Women at Work Series)

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How Organizations Can Recognize—and End—Gendered Ageism

by Amy Diehl, Leanne M. Dzubinski, and Amber L. Stephenson

When a university vice president had an opening for a controller sitting just beneath her in the hierarchy, board members told her to seek an “older man” to complement her. Since she assumed the vice president role at age 37, board members had routinely criticized her age, calling her diminishing pet names like “kiddo” and “young lady.” But being older wouldn’t necessarily have made a difference, as another woman explained: “I am at the age when I should be getting the higher-level jobs; people in my profession now want to give the jobs to the 30- and younger 40-year-olds with the ‘fresh, new ideas’ as opposed to going with the ...