I recently stumbled upon a disturbing report that spoke to one of my concerns; the reality that “older women” tend to invisible in our culture. No, not that we simply disappear off of the side- walk; that would be a real Sci Fi classic. But in studies conducted by the Revera Seniors Services and the International Federation on Aging, after the age of 66, 46% of the women interviewed reported being “routinely ignored or treated like they were invisible,” compared to 32% of the men interviewed. Another unsettling statistic? A whopping 32% of the older women reported people assumed they were incompetent while just 18% of the men felt they had been treated this way.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to eventually find myself in this category. This is ageism folks, plain and simple! It may seem impossible to turn the tables on this one but I think we can. If someone dismisses you, speak up. If someone assumes you don’t know something, clarity the error in their thinking. If a younger person is deferred to, correct the misstep. In other words, it’s impossible to be invisible if we make ourselves seen!