Breaking the age barrier

With a 'greying' population, old age is fast becoming the new middle age and it's time to ditch ageism, argues Anne Dempsey.

Eighty-nine-year-old Lillian Willoughby of Philadelphia in the US went to jail for a week in September convicted of obstructing a federal building as a protest against the war in Iraq. Whatever you think of her politics, the wheelchair-bound activist is proof that the spirit doesn't necessarily fade with age.

Lillian may not conform to our idea of the typical octogenarian, and that's the point about being older. Nobody does. While the older population is often categorised in reactive role, ("grandmother jilted" "granddad mugged"), this is a crude measurement at best. Today's over-60s are not a homogenous gathering. Examine any random group of older Irish public figures - take, for example, actor Anna Manahan, cardiologist Maurice Neligan, singer Sonny Knowles, broadcaster Andy O'Mahony, poet Brendan Kennelly, entrepreneur Tony O'Reilly, writer Maeve Binchy, politician Mary O'Rourke, architect Sam Stephenson . . . the only thing they may have in common is that they are 60-plus.

Another reason not to lump older people together is that the experience of being old varies considerably for those involved. An 1989 Inquiry into the Third Age by the Carnegie UK Trust defined these years as being post-work/childrearing, offering decades of independence before the fourth age of some dependency arrives. Within this definition are widespread disparities between third-agers. For some, it's a time still of potential and fulfilment. For others, retirement can be spoiled by poverty, loneliness, poor health. So how people fare in the third age may depend on the life they've had before it.

There are differences too between the young-old and the old-old. Generally, people in their 60s are in the mainstream of life, contributing as parents, grandparents, friends, neighbours, mentors, campaigners and volunteers. Twenty years on, even the healthiest may be less active. They can still, of course, be net contributors; irrespective of age, everyone may remain loved and loving, able to give to life.

In earlier societies, older people were accorded respect due to perceived wisdom and longevity. More recently it was decided that a disengagement as people aged was desirable - with US states such as Florida an extreme example. This separation has ghettoised older people, and helped the spread of ageism, a prejudice against older people because they are old, leading to often unconscious, negative attitudes to ageing.

Discrimination on grounds of age has been unlawful here since 1998, but it still goes on. Ageism includes talking down to older people, according less weight to their opinions and needs, restricting their recruitment and promotion, and taking their health and welfare needs less seriously. For example, the Breast Check service covers women aged 50 to 64, stopping just when incidence of breast cancer begins to escalate. The Irish Cancer Society has called for the age limit to be extended to 70.

Ageist attitudes include seeing older people as physically and intellectually diminished, viewing a lower standing of living for them as acceptable, seeing them as less productive after paid work, and equating physical beauty solely with youth. Ageism permeates many aspects of society including government, public opinion and over-60s themselves. It becomes institutionalised when we marginalise older people in law and policy, and accept as normal their withdrawal from life. Sheila, an attractive older woman holding down a responsible job speaks for many when she says: "Walking down the street, I have begun feeling invisible, eyes slide over me, sometimes I'm just not seen any more."

Stereotyping older people damages us all. First, it can mean we overlook the resources, skills and experiences which older people place at our disposal. Second, it allows us to patronise and discriminate, thereby creating a less just society. Its objective may be to deny the reality that one day we will grow old, because we fear old age. In this, ageism creates a self-fulfilling prophecy - the kind of life I may loathe when I age is more likely to happen unless stereotypical attitudes are challenged now. By distancing ourselves from what we fear might be our own future, we create what we fear.

Ageism makes poor economic sense. For example, every time mid-life job hunters are passed over because of their age and have to go on the dole, they cost the State and deprive it of their taxes and consumer spend. Shunting people too rapidly through the third age will logically increase the dependent population. Seen in this light, ageism is wasteful - and costly.

In 1926 when the Central Statistics Office analysis began, Irish men had a life expectancy of 57.4 years while women could expect to live 57.9 years. Life expectancy for babies born in 2002 is 75.1 for males and 80.3 for females. If you've already survived the first and second ages, longevity is greater. Today, men at 65 can expect to live a further 12-15 years, while today's 65-year-old woman may live on average another 19 years.

But this demographic change is often described as a "time bomb", characterised negatively rather than welcoming an increase in life span. Tackling ageism in an ageing society would mean developing a positive ageing strategy across a range of government departments from finance to health, social welfare, environment and local government, supported by well-researched studies on ageing.

There is evidence of the start of such change. A Minister of State, Seán Power, is responsible for services for older people and now chairs an interdepartmental group on older people. This year University College, Cork, introduced the State's first Master's degree in gerontology, examining the psychological, social, educational, health and caring aspects of the ageing process.

The 2002 Equality Authority report Implementing Equality for Older People contained 72 recommendations towards a strategy for equality. Many of these - such as "age-proofing", age-awareness training and increased consultation with older people - involve little or no cost.

Because they are living longer, older people are more numerous. In 1900, only one in 25 Europeans was aged over 65. Today there are half a million over 65s in Ireland, comprising almost one in 10 of the population. By 2040, this group is projected to grow to 1.25 million.

Move on another 10 years to 2050 and the over 65s will be 24 per cent of our population or almost one in four, and life after 65 will be twice as long as childhood. As a consumer group, older people could have considerable clout.

As a society we have a choice. While there is a clear responsibility to support people in their first and fourth age - the dependent young and the dependent old old - we have more of a choice about third-agers. Either they can be regarded as an addition to the burden of dependence, or enabled with changes in attitude and policy to continue to contribute. In short, the longer people can maintain their independence and postpone their fourth age, the better for everyone.

Always, we hold within us our younger and our older selves. If youth is wasted on the young, middle and older age gives us all a second chance to learn from life. If we're let.

The Third Age Handbook, a Guide for Older People in Ireland edited by Anne Dempsey is published today by the Liffey Press, €19.95.