Those of you who are familiar with popular nocturnal emissions in the U. of K. will no doubt have fallen over been aware of Strictly Come Chav Factor, a kind of pro-celebrity ballroom dancing competition. The pirouetting couples are judged by a panel of professional dancers and choreographers – three men, and one woman. Initially, the female panellist was Arlene Phillips (67) but no tokenist sop she: Ms Phillips is a professional choreographer and theatre director of many years’ experience. After a few series, however, Ms Phillips was replaced by the female winner of a previous series, the singer Alesha Dixon (32), who, while talented in many respects, hardly holds a candle to Ms Phillips as a dance judge.
At the time – and I still do – I suspect ageism was at work here (many other people felt the same, including the then minister Harridan Harperson who raised the matter in parliament), and the suspicion is strong, Master Luke, that TV producers are keen to trade ladies of a certain age for younger models. If Strictly’s Got Talent didn’t have a token woman before, they certainly do now. The BBC has strongly denied that Ms Phillips was replaced by virtue of her age – but has given no other reason.
Now, there has been much discussion in these fora about gender equality and how to achieve it (see this recent post from Steve, and many posts on Jenny’s blog and Athene’s blog) but very little about the interaction between age and gender. On 11 January, I contracted collected a copy of the Evening Standard (a newspaper which can be picked up for free outside any major London station – notwithstanding inasmuch as which the reader can draw their own conclusions). The lead story was all about TV presenter Miriam O’Reilly (53) who had filed for discrimination on the basis of age against the BBC who had removed her from its show Countryfile (an emission of which I’d had no previous knowledge). An industrial tribunal upheld her allegation of ageism, stating that Ms O’Reilly would have been given ‘proper consideration’ if she had been ’10 to 15 years younger’. Deny it all it likes, but Auntie does seem to be Ageist.
Now, before one imagines that the BBC is controlled entirely by scheming men whose ambition is to replace trout with totty, the focus of blame was former BBC1 controller Jay Hunt (43), a female person of the opposite sex, who was (to quote the story) ‘forced to deny claims that she hated women’. ‘I am a 43-year-old woman and I have had my own difficulties surviving in this industry’ Ms Hunt is reported as saying: ‘The last thing I would ever do is discriminate on the basis of gender or age’.
What is one to make of this? Overheated competition between women struggling to keep a toehold in a male-dominated industry? Possibly.
But there is another issue, and that is self-confidence, an issue raised in Athene Donald’s latest effusion. Quite apart from the glamorous spotlights of televisual production, the employment market is full of Ladies of a Certain Age who, having perhaps had breaks in their careers of a nature and duration not enjoyed by men, lack a certain amount of confidence when confronted by the prospect of returning to the job market.
Given that I am now a Gentleman of a Certain Age, whose children are just about to pass the embryonic stage and become largely self-propelled, I meet many People Of Both Sexes Of A Certain Age in the same position. Mrs Crox (46), for example, is just about to be made redundant, and worries that, at her age, she’ll be all washed up, and that preference will be given to younger people. How do Ladies of a Certain Age get back into the job market? Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that employers, if they are wise, should apply a kind of positive discrimination as regards age. Older women will, simply by virtue of age, have more experience of life than younger women. The male-chauvinist cynic in me says that older women are less likely to have problems with boyfriends, to get married, to get pregnant and demand maternity leave. Sexist? Oh, yes, definitely – but until government and corporations see parenthood as a gender-neutral, employers will see facts on the ground, not as people would like them to be.
Some issues of confidence revolve around training. Women returning after long career breaks might be worried about improvements in technology (this video clip, while short, speaks volumes). But as I advise scientists who put competence in using lab equipment above honing one’s skills as a writer, any fool can be taught to press buttons. In my view, older people – of both sexes – have a great deal to contribute. As people live longer, stay healthier, and retire later (if at all – I have no plans to retire, they’ll have to drag me out of here in a box). But women, who might feel rusty after a career break, should be especially encouraged. There could be a reason why women live for decades after menopause, and live longer than men in overalls overall. Although nobody really knows what that reason is, it is something for which we all should be grateful, and if we underestimate it, the loss will fall to all of us.
As a Lady of a Certain Age, and in the interest of abolishing both ageism and sexism at the BBC, I hereby announce my willingness to serve as a presenter on Top Gear, and to test-drive and crack wise about any and all ridiculously large pickup trucks and SUVs that may intimidate and offend non-USAians.
I know, I know … it’s a painful sacrifice, but someone has to do it.
Yay! Go KristiV! I’d love to drive one of your big Texan pickups, but the price of petrol here ( about $ 2 per litre) would put me off.
My extended cab, long bed Ford F-250, aka Smaug the Magnificent, is a common sort here in Texas, but he would be quite a novelty in the UK.
A novelty that almost no one could afford to drive, and which would certainly get stuck between bollards or in alleyways. There’s speculation that gas prices will rise to about $5.00 per gallon here in the US, within a year or so – in which case I will drive Smaug even less frequently than I do now. But if you find yourself in South Texas, you’re always welcome to take Smaug for a drive. I find myself saying “Bring it on!” a lot when I do.
Yes, Henry, the price of petrol/gas in England (and Europe generally) would make most denizens of the US faint, were they not forewarned.
I remember a few years ago that, when I used to tell American friends that it cost the equivalent of US $ 100 to fill the tank of my old Mk 1 Fiat Punto, they generally thought I was joking.
Smaug’s fuel tank holds over 30 gallons, which currently costs right around US $100 to fill. Since the Magnificent one is a 6.0L V10 behemoth, this is rather obscene. Gas/petrol should probably be more expensive here … there is little financial disincentive to drive something like Smaug, and loads of “reasons” to do so. I’d guesstimate that 3/4 of my neighbors, whether students, butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers, have pickups and/or large SUVs.
Kristi,
We have so many “smaug-like” vehicles on the road here, that I sometimes have a real inferiority complex driving our little hybrid around. But they do get the last laugh when it snows…
Smaug is terrible to drive even when the roads are just a bit wet – I can’t imagine how frightening it would be to drive him in the snow. Most of the time, I drive my ten-year-old Honda Accord, and I would like to buy a hybrid Civic in a couple of years. Smaug is used for driving out to my friends’ ranch, and for pulling a horse trailer. He’s very useful for hauling horse manure for the backyard garden too.
@Kristi – can you convert Smaug to work on LPG?
@ cromercrox: Hmmm … not sure about that. Certainly there are buses and other large vehicles that run on LPG around here.
Back to the topic – slightly. Caroline, my 15-year-old Volvo is a Lady Of A Certain Age. A 2.5-litre sedan, she’s something of a gas guzzler and definitely a relic from an earlier time. But she’s frankly much better built than most cars around nowadays. At 135,000 miles on the clock she’s barely middle-aged – most cars today would have expired by then.
Kristi – does Smaug have a shotgun rack in the cab, in the approved Texas style?
Just wondering.
Also, I would vote for you as host of Top Gear, as I’m most of the way through the DVD of Season 11 (thank you Ricardipus brother for the Xmas present) and Jeremy Clarkson is beginning to irritate me a bit.
Regarding cars, I am presuming that the inevitable, and inexorable reduction in horsepower over the 10+ years of the Ricardimobile’s life must be improving my gas mileage.*
Regarding the original topic of this blogpost, I clearly have nothing useful to add.
*this reasoning may not be entirely sound
I am not qualified to talk about Top Gear presenters, being one of the few people in the country never to have watched the programme, but perhaps I could add something about self-confidence. I think some women, attempting to return to the job-market after career breaks, may start off with some confidence. However, women I have known in that position soon find that in interviews the skills they have gained while out of the salaried job-market are not valued, and indeed talked down along the lines of ‘yes but what have you done in the last 2, 5, 10 years?’ (Insert the correct length of career gap here). After a few conversations along those lines any confidence they started off with is rapidly dissipated. Furthermore, there is an additional problem some returners feel of how to talk to adults at all after some years of ‘what’s the magic word’, and similar remarks. This should not be underestimated. These issues may be just as important as lack of confidence about advances in technology or hving failed to keep up with the literature. All these factors indicate why the Daphne Jackson Fellowships for returners are so invaluable (at least in the UK).
Athene: both excellent points – thank you for making them. As for the first one, this is where I disagree with Steve (in his most recent post): staying at home raising kids IS a job, requiring commitment, skill, and fortitude (or even fiftitude, if you are a parent beyond the first flush of youth). As for the second: yes, the well-known Wheels On The Bus syndrome. Mrs Crox took just three years out, and the one thing she found difficult (apart from the constant fatigue) was the difficulty of having any kind of grown-up conversation, or indeed any conversation at all that wasn’t related to children.
The Punto’s ($ 100) tank was just a bit over half that capacity, as I remember. Of course, even being an old mid 90s petrol model it probably did 40+ miles to the US gallon, so you could drive for a fair way/while on one tank of gas.
In the part of Germany that my better half The Boss comes from (and which is renowned for its thriftiness), the farmers all drive ancient diesel Mercedes saloons. The Boss tells me this is because the Merc diesel engines are very robust and the average Bavarian farmer expects to get Henry-style mileage! The Merc on the family farm is nearly 20 yrs old and getting up towards 150,000 km.
Re Athene’s last point, this kind of rather undermining approach is not reserved only for women coming back into the workforce. I hear numerous stories from my friends around the business of mid-career academics who are in periods of scarce funding/thin publication being threatened with losing their labspace altogether. One I know told me that the boss who called him in to give him the Hard Word said, when my friend protested:
Austin: I think ‘Henry-style mileage’ used to be the norm. Caroline has achieved 135,000 without a speck of rust and is still going strong. True, her air-conditioning expired years ago, and she has a man-eating glovebox, but she passes her MOT and just keeps cruising along. I submit that many cars these days would be fit for scrap by 135,000 – built-in obsolescence. However, I submit that I am doing more for the environment by keeping my old gas-guzzler on the road forever than scrapping her to buy a new car.
As to your second point – I think pen-pushers should be made more aware of non-publishing-related activities such as teaching, mentoring, conference attendance, outreach – hey, even blogging. But thisis a huge subject presumably aired amply elsewhere.
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