Age Is Just a Number

Santa Barbara Author Bonnie Marcus Explains How Gendered Ageism Isn’t Just a Female Problem

By Leslie Dinaberg | August 25, 2022

Read all of the stories in “Our 2022 Active Aging Guide” here.

Gendered ageism — the double-whammy slap in the face of age and gender bias — is something that career coach Bonnie Marcus sees more and more of her clients facing. “This is the next Me Too movement,” says Marcus, a Santa Barbara resident who addresses the issue in her book, Not Done Yet! How Women Over 50 Regain Their Confidence and Claim Workplace Power, published last spring.

The issue first came to her attention about four years ago, when she was working with a client who was an attorney for a large tech firm in Silicon Valley. The woman was 58 and had always been a star performer, but she noticed that things had begun to change. Her boss didn’t ask her for her opinion as often, her workload changed, she wasn’t invited to some meetings where she felt she would add value, and she was beginning to feel like she was being pushed out.

“It’s a pretty common theme,” says Marcus. “So I said to myself, this can’t be an isolated experience. I had a 25- year career in corporate and really personally hadn’t experienced gendered ageism, but this can’t be a unique experience.”