Age discrimination laws don't protect older women as they do older men


Date:
June 18, 2020
Source:
University at Buffalo
Summary:
Older women in the workforce should be considered collectively
as a unique demographic group that includes both gender and
age if they're to receive adequate protection against workplace
discrimination, according to a new article.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Older women in the workforce should be considered collectively as a
unique demographic group that includes both gender and age if they're to receive adequate protection against workplace discrimination, according
to a new paper published by a University at Buffalo economist.


==========================================================================
"Age discrimination laws may be ineffective or less effective for older
women," says Joanne Song McLaughlin, an assistant professor of economics
in UB's College of Arts and Sciences. "These women are falling through
the cracks." The effectiveness of these laws is critical, not only in protecting against the inherent injustice of employment discrimination,
but in ensuring the viability of Social Security.

"We expect to see a continued decline in the ratio of workers to
retired individuals in the near future as the population ages," says McLaughlin. "This increase in dependency ratio poses a serious Social
Security solvency issue.

Employing older women who want to continue working is one way to
influence that ratio." The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
(ADEA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) are part of a collection of state and federal laws intended to provide equal employment opportunities. ADEA prohibits age discrimination while Title VII prohibits gender discrimination.

The two laws, however, function independent of one another and do not
work well in concert, because each is a separate statute. The courts subsequently do not usually allow cases that combine them. It's either
age or gender in cases of discrimination, which fails ultimately to
guard against the circumstances faced by older women: intersectional discrimination, the point where multiple demographic characteristics
are responsible for limiting opportunities.

McLaughlin says previous research suggests the laws seem to protect
older male workers. She also cites studies showing differential treatment against older women and the role of appearance.



========================================================================== "These theories could explain why employers may demonstrate adverse
treatment against older women that may be different from older men,"
she says.

And while the existing literature has examples of research looking
exclusively at either age or gender discrimination, McLaughlin's paper, published in the peer-reviewed journal Labour, is the first to examine
the gender difference in the effect of age discrimination laws on job
outcomes for older workers.

To test her hypothesis on the potential ineffectiveness of
the antidiscrimination statutes, the current paper relies on two
identification strategies examining the laws' effects on older men and
older women at both the state and federal level.

"The evidence indicated that both state age discrimination laws and the
ADEA improved the labor market outcomes for older men, but had a far
less favorable effect on older women," says McLaughlin. "In some cases,
I found that age discrimination laws did not improve the labor market
outcomes for older women at all." The paper's robust findings support
creating a new protective class of workers for older women.

"I conducted numerous tests looking for alternative explanations about
the gender difference in age discrimination laws," says McLaughlin. "All
my results consistently find that age discrimination laws were far less effective for older women compared with older men.

"Older women's intersectional discrimination must be recognized as a
separate cause of action," she says.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_at_Buffalo. Original
written by Bert Gambini.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Joanne Song McLaughlin. Falling Between the Cracks: Discrimination
Laws
and Older Women. LABOUR, 2020; 34 (2): 215 DOI: 10.1111/labr.12175 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200618120157.htm

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