Confronting Ageism

These personal essays reflect on feminism, ageism, social inequalities, and care work. Essayists Joan Dizion, Phyllis Mitzen, Connie Goldman, and Nancy Hooyman write about their personal journeys, and call for more feminist work on women and aging.

Founders of Our Bodies Ourselves discuss their personal experience of aging and their continued commitment to making health and sexuality information accessible to all women and gender-expansive people.

Ryan Backer speaks to how age activism and queer activism intersect, and how age pride can aid us in overcoming ageism.

In this episode of Next Chapters, Mindy Fried shares an unnerving set of experiences she had with a medical practitioner. Journalist Judith Graham shares her insights on ageism in health care, and sociologist Dr. Karen Bullock draws on her seminal research and experience to discuss the impact of racism on access to health care for older Black people.

The AARP surveyed women aged 50 and over about the the age, gender, racial, class, and weight discrimination that they experience. Here are their findings.

This fact sheet from the NCOA reports on women's experiences of aging and ageism in retirement, in health care, and as caregivers ourselves.

Kristen Shaughnessy discusses age discrimination, including how it intersects with gender discrimination, particularly for journalists like herself.

This zine, created by nonbinary activist Ryan Backer, raises awareness of ageism within an intersectional context, by rethinking the binary of young versus old.

In this podcast interview, novelist, feminist, and philanthropist Isabel Allende reflects on aging, motherhood, relationships, death, writing, and living with purpose at age 80.

This article by Margaret Morganroth Gullette addresses the harm caused by ageism and “age shaming,” especially as it relates to assumptions about competence.

How do we define ageism? One professor argues we can do better than the standard definition of ageism as “stereotyping, prejudice and/or discrimination based on age.”

Ashton Applewhite reflects on the ways that thinking in terms of "generations" can cause harm by creating division, feeding stereotypes, and igniting conflict.