A recent study, conducted by the social innovation third place The Riveter in partnership with the international online polling institute YouGov and the company Xerox, reveals that women feel more hindered because of their age than because of their gender.

Gender is in third place (17% of the opinions expressed) among the factors perceived as discriminatory, after age (25%) and physical appearance (20%). According to the interviewees, this age-related inequality of condition is reflected in the scarcity of opportunities for professional development, increased difficulties in accessing positions of responsibility and even exclusionary managerial attitudes when they do not push older women outright.

We know that age is, for everyone, the most important factor of discrimination at work, ahead of all other criteria.

But is this " ageism " more detrimental to one genre than to the other ? A question posed as early as 1972 by Susan Sontag in an article entitled " The Double standard of aging ". The essayist argues that aging is socially valued in men while it is stigmatized in women, with all the socio-economic consequences that this entails, including working conditions and personal financial situation.

Nearly 50 years and a lot of socio-cultural developments later, where do we stand? A report by the Higher Council for Professional Equality shows that a gap in access to employment for older people persists, to the detriment of women. However, this gap is quite moderate : 57% of working men over 55 have a job, compared to 53% of women. On the other hand, in this age group, the wage gap between women and men is greater (by 8 points) than in the population as a whole. Moreover, from the age of 45, women are largely under-represented in positions of responsibility : they represent less than a third of senior managers aged 45-65.