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  - Food for Thought - Women and Age

Women and Age - Food for Thought

As the leading employers’ forum for accelerating the advancement of women in the workplace, Opportunity Now is keen for organisations to understand and support all women, appreciating that women themselves are a very diverse group.

The needs and progression of older women in the workforce is a topic which has perhaps received too little attention from the business community in recent years. However, with an ageing population, a multi-generational workforce to manage and an increasing body of research which suggests the disparities of gender equality become exaggerated with age, it is important for employers to develop a clear understanding of the issues associated with advancing older women in our workplaces. With 2012 designated the European Year of Active Ageing, Opportunity Now hope this Food For Thought fact sheet will provide a timely briefing on the context and challenges behind maximising the potential of older women and provide some pragmatic actions which employers should consider.

An ageing population

The population of the UK is ageing. Over the last 25 years the percentage of the population aged 65 and over increased from 15 per cent in 1985 to 17 per cent in 2010[i], an increase of 1.7 million people in this age group. Over the same period, the percentage of the population aged under 16 decreased from 21 per cent to 19 per cent[ii]. This trend is projected to continue. By 2035, 23 per cent of the population is projected to be aged 65 and over compared to 18 per cent aged under 16[iii].

Not only is the population ageing, but there has been progressive ageing of the older population itself. Life expectancy in the UK has reached its highest level on record for both males and females, at 78 years at birth for males and 82 years at birth for females[iv]. At 4 years, the UK has the smallest gap between male and female life expectancy across the EU-27 countries (in other countries, women outlive men by longer).[v] The number of centenarians in the UK in 2010 was estimated to be 12,640; a five-fold increase on the 1980 estimate of 2,500[vi].

Older people in the workforce

The number of people aged 65 and over still in work has been rising steadily, even during the recession. Many of them already have access to employment and simply intend to carry on working either because they find their jobs fulfilling, or because they need to financially. 1 in 12 people over 65 are now working[i]. A quarter of the total current workforce already plans to work beyond 65.In the three month period between July and September 2011, an extra 40,000 people over the age of 65 joined the work force, taking the total number to 823,000[ii]. This is the highest number since the Office for National Statistics started keeping these figures in 1992.
Women aged 60-64 are the fastest growing group of economically active older people and their participation in the labour market has been rising steeply since the mid-nineties[iii].

Working age and retirement

The Government has recently removed the default retirement age, in order to allow people to work as long as they want to do so. This came into effect in October 2011, so employers are no longer able to force people to retire should they wish to continue working. This has been widely welcomed by anti age-discrimination campaigners and is likely to be a step towards normalising phased retirements, with a greater uptake of flexible and part-time working opportunities for older people anticipated.
Women will now be expected to work longer because the state pension age for women is becoming aligned with that of men, moving to 65 over the next few years (on a gradual scale depending on the birth dates of the affected women), and to 66 by 2020.

Older women’s progression in the workplace

Disparities between male and female advancement in the workplace become more prevalent with age. As male workers grow older they are more likely to make it into managerial positions, which is less true of older women workers. A study by the London School of Economics found that at age twenty, the same percentage of men and women were in management positions -5%. However by age 45, this had risen to around 23% for men, but just 11% for women[i].

Older women are particularly disadvantaged in certain sectors. Speaking of the financial services sector, Trevor Philips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said, “The City hires and promotes 25 -39 year olds which immediately puts women at a disadvantage. It also believes that after the age of 40 you have nothing to contribute.”[ii]

Older women’s pay gap

The gender pay gap increases with age. At age 40, the full-time pay gap between men and women in the UK is 27%, compared with an overall hourly full-time gap of 15.5% for employees of all ages[i].

In the United States of America, the gender pay gap for women aged 20-24 is only 7.1%, whereas for women aged 45-54 t is a considerable 26.4%[ii].

The failure to progress older women to management levels in the same numbers as men is one factor behind the age and gender pay gap, as is the concentration of men and women into different occupational roles and different sectors.

Older women on boards

It is older women who are more likely to be qualified to sit on corporate boards. Whilst only 14.2% of this year’s FTSE 100 Directors are female[i], there is some evidence that women board members are younger than their male counterparts. According to Cranfield University’s 2010 study, women FTSE 100 executive directors in 2010 were more than two years younger than their male peers, with an average age of 50, compared to 52 for male directors[ii]. The difference is more marked for non-executive appointments, where the average male age was 60, and the average female age was just 56[iii].

Age and Gender Discrimination cases

The Equally Act 2010 introduced the right of employees to file discrimination cases based on two characteristics at a time, for example gender and age. However, the current government did not implement this legislation, and announced in March 2011 that it has no plans to do so, dropping the moves as part of a drive to minimise “burdensome”[i] regulations.

Download the complete Food for Thought Fact Sheet, including recommendations and the complete list of references:
Women_and _Age.pdf (234 kb)