Report Reveals Women Aged 50+ Feel Undervalued By Society

Think Tank behind report are calling for younger women to take action

An independent think tank on demographic change has released a report revealing that women aged 50+ feel undervalued by society.

The International Longevity Centre (ILC) has launched a report called ‘Has the Sisterhood Forgotten Older Women?’ - 38 essays written by women to view whether our society ignores older women. This is a direct call to younger women to respond and make a stance against this.

The report talks about the real impact older women make to British society - acting as carers and volunteers, encouraging faith groups, binding families and communities together and being the trailblazers for today's freedom, to name but a few.

Contributions to the report include women from all walks of life, including Sheila Gilmore MP, Women in Public Policy and housing association chief Jane Ashcroft Anchor.

The report shows that despite fighting for maternity rights, child care reform, abortion rights and equal pay older women feel they are a 'burden' for the younger generation.

In comparison to older men, who are portrayed in a positive light as wise and experienced, older women are culturally percieved as being second class citizens.

However, the report also found younger women are likely to be horrified when they discover their mentors and elders are struggling to feel significant.

Baroness Sally Greengross, chief executive of ILC, ex-director general of Age UK and a pioneer for empowering older women, is making a direct call to younger women to refuse to allow older women to be made into second class citizens.

She said: 'As our collection of essays clearly reveals, somewhere along the way we seem to have relegated older women to the second class seats in our fight for gender equality.'

Sally-Marie Bamford, editor of the report and Assistant Director, Research and Strategy said: 'This collection of essays provides a marker for future change and as a result the ILC-UK is calling the government to set policy priorities for the direct welfare of older women in our society'.

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