A gendered analysis of age discrimination among older jobseekers in Australia

AuthorsMichael McGann, Rachel Ong ViforJ, Dina Bowman, Alan Duncan, Helen Kimberley, Simon Biggs
PublishedMay 2016
PublisherBankwest Curtin Economics Centre
ISBN978-1-925083-50-7
ISSN2202-2791
Number of Pages18
Number16/01

This paper investigates how age and gender interact to shape older jobseekers’ experiences of age discrimination within a mixed methods framework. The analysis reveals that there has been a considerable decline in levels of perceived ageism among older men nationally relative to older women. These findings suggest that the nature of ageism experienced by older women is qualitatively different from men. Hence, policy responses to ageism need to be far more tailored in their approach because present, one-size-fits all, business case approaches rely on an overly narrow concept that obscures the gender and occupational dimensions of ageism