Ashoka
Context
In the fourth series of Ashoka East Africa’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion dialogues, the team unpacked ageism as a social construct that promotes exclusivity instead of inclusivity.
In our day-to-day affairs, we often tell/hear jokes told touching on age. The jokes could be targeting those in the upper age bracket or lower age bracket thereby creating a culture of discrimination or a sense of exclusivity. If not careful this culture may find its way into the work environment creating silos instead of an open and supportive environment where all employees work collaboratively towards a shared vision.
It is against this backdrop that the team engaged in this dialogue. The objective was to trigger a discussion on how the team is set up. The underlying questions being, are team members creating an inclusive culture? And are we aware of our biases brought about by our upbringing/ background?
Our understanding of Ageism and first encounter
Agism involves discrimination based on age. This can be stereotypes or prejudice against or in favour of people based on their chronological age. This act enforces social inequalities that become more pronounced on the old and/or the poor.
In simple terms, Ageism is a global problem that involves discrimination on the basis of either being young or old in the wide society.
We note, also, that ageism is a complex domain that includes cognitive, behavioural and emotional manifestations (Iversen et al. 2009). Moreover, ageism tends to reinforce social inequalities as it is more pronounced towards older women, poor people or those with dementia (Barnett 2005; Rippon et al. 2014).
A recent study based on the European Social Survey found that ageism is the most prevalent type of discrimination, reported by almost 35% of all participants over the age of 18 (Ayalon 2013).
The papers show how important it is to distinguish between individual and societal ageism by placing an emphasis on either internal age stereotypes or policies and institutional manifestations of ageism.
It is hoped that future research will focus on active ways to reduce or eliminate ageism at the individual and societal levels.
When it's towards young people, ageism takes the form of ‘lack of capacity/ knowledge/ experience’. The ability of a young person to take on a task and deliver the expected outcome is greatly undermined. This perception of young people is made worse by our culture.
In the African culture, young people and women were to be seen and not to be heard. This informed how young people contributed to conversations/ dialogues/ community development and/or nation-building. Though the practice has faded, it still has a firm in certain settings. Organizations have made considerable steps to ensure the inclusion of the voices/ ideas of young people. This has taken the form of specific roles being allocated to young people i.e., youth envoy/ youth parliament/ youth advisors etc.
However, space created for their participation may come across as tokenistic when their opinions/ contributions aren’t integrated into the final output of the project/ policy. This further perpetuates the culture of being seen and not being heard.
In most cases, Signage and advertisements tend to focus more on the young people rather than a blend. NB Kenya Public Act (2017) sets the retirement age for civil servants set at 60 years. Some jobs that require rare skills would otherwise be allowed to continue even after 60 years of age.
Almost worldwide, political choices. Most constitutions provide for a specific age limit for voting.
Some jobs are discriminative of the age of a person while they don’t consider the capabilities of the individual. E.g. the carder in Kenya and those of most countries vary from ages 30 to 35.
Sometimes, young people are being treated unfairly at the workplace. The minimum wage for young people is lower than the adults even on the exact same job. This is however debatable. Young people are the future, they need the power to change their present if we are to create a better world. ‘This says is mostly not the reality.`
Reflections shared during the dialogue
While tackling this topic, it became clear that we are often aware of how an issue affects us and may not comprehend fully how it affects others. Through this discussion, the dialogists begin to understand the magnitude of ageism and how it manifests in our day to day lives.
Agism in Africa is heavily influenced by culture. This culture then informs and colours our interactions with our peers, those who are younger than us as well as those who are older. It goes further to define roles based on age and gender and reinforces practices that may be misconstrued as prejudicial towards a specific age group.
Ageism effects are mostly impactful and effect on health and well-being of a people.
Psychological effects e.g Older adults exposed to negative age stereotypes in laboratory studies demonstrated worse memory, handwriting, and self-confidence and have appeared to age instantly—moving in a stereotypically older.
Stress and Chronic diseases e.g Theories have been developed to explain how chronic stressors stemming from social inequities may increase the risk for chronic disease by getting “under the skin
Organizations can put in place the following to help solve the issues of Ageism at the workplace.
- Put in place policies that are favourable for both the young and old.
- Sensitization of team members of such policies.
- Investments and adopting research findings on Ageism.
- Reflections of the discussant
Bryan’s reflection - As a discussant, I became aware of my biases. Prior to the discussion, I viewed agism only from the lens of a youth/ youth advocate and a youth program lead. My approach leading to this discussion was to present the effects of ageism on the young. However, while researching and after the discussion, it became clear that agism has favoured and favours the young in certain instances and worked against those who are old. I also became clear of the biases I hold on the ability and lack, thereof, of older people.
The discussion opened my mind and allowed me to take note of my actions. I am now keen to ensure that I play my part in creating an inclusive environment for all.