More than one in two adult women, in France, is over 50 years old – or almost 15 million women in 2023, according to INSEE data. Difficult to believe, as the “fifties” are the ones largely forgotten in advertisements, films, series or even management committees within companies… The cause is a phenomenon of double discrimination: sexism and ageism. To restore visibility to what the Anglo-Saxons soberly call middle life, women have chosen to speak or give a voice on the subject.
A podcast on the world of “senior” women at work
It was after meeting an overqualified woman who was unfairly shunned by recruiters that Claire Flury, a dynamic retired HEC graduate, created her podcast “Plaff” to raise awareness of the discrimination in employment suffered by so-called “senior” women. . “Suddenly, as they approach fifty, they completely disappear from the radar, she takes offense. The most astonishing thing is to see the persistent gap between reality and clichés. Starting with recruiters who, due to lack of training, automatically eliminate valuable applications. »
In one of the episodes of “Plaff”, entitled “Companies don’t want us”, Claire Flury interviews women who express their astonishment at the difficulties encountered in finding a job. “The reason is the multiple stereotypes with which they are immediately confronted: too expensive, not enough or too qualified, not very agile, old-fashioned, dumped… No wonder that 71% of them find themselves in part-time work from the age of 50 years, she points out. Fortunately, more and more of them are refusing this planned obsolescence. »
“Plaff”: Plaffpodcast.fr
Parodies of advertisements and fashion images
Sandrine Alouf, artist, gallerist in Paris and founder of the collective C’est pas tomorrow the old woman, opted for a joyful and creative protest. She recounts the genesis of her project: “An advertiser to whom I asked why the advertisements for anti-wrinkle creams only cast very young women retorted, without an ounce of second-degree: “Because a woman, after 50, is not attractive! ” » Once the anger has passed, Sandrine Alouf tells herself that the best response is humor. She portrays women aged 50 and over by parodying images from the worlds of fashion, advertising or cinema – from the trilogy of Godfather, by Francis Ford Coppola, or the actress Sharon Stone, for example.
You have 61.2% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.