What happens when nearly one-third of the world's women become invisible? Not physically invisible, but absent from our screens, stories, workplaces, and even the technologies shaping our future. The answer reveals one of the most overlooked forms of discrimination in modern society: the intersection of ageism and sexism. While society has made progress in challenging many forms of prejudice, discrimination against older women remains deeply embedded in culture. From films and television to artificial intelligence and folklore, women often find themselves pushed to the margins as they age. The problem is not merely one of representation; it shapes how women are valued, treated, and even how they see themselves.
Underrepresentation in Media
Although people over fifty make up a substantial portion of society, they occupy only a small fraction of on-screen roles. Even within that limited representation, men vastly outnumber women. Older male characters are far more likely to appear as leaders, heroes, experts, or romantic interests, while older women are frequently absent altogether. A 2021 report by the Geena Davis Institute found that characters aged 50-plus account for only about 25% of all film and television characters, and within this group, men make up around 75–80%, depending on the platform, showing a strong gender imbalance.
Cultural Double Standards
This imbalance reflects a cultural double standard that has existed for generations. Writer Susan Sontag aptly said that men benefit from two accepted standards of beauty: the youthful boy and the mature man. By contrast, women are often judged according to a single standard that prizes youth above all else. Wrinkles, grey hair, and visible signs of ageing are frequently viewed as flaws rather than natural markers of a life lived. As a result, women often begin facing age-related discrimination much earlier than men. Women experience age bias in hiring and recruitment as early as their forties, while older men are more likely to be perceived as experienced, capable, and authoritative. The workplace, therefore, often mirrors the same prejudices found in popular culture.
Historical and Folklore Roots
The roots of these attitudes run deep. Across many cultures, older women have traditionally been portrayed through a limited set of stereotypes. They are either depicted as frightening, lonely, and undesirable figures—the witch, the hag—or reduced to the role of the selfless grandmother whose identity exists only in service to others. Rarely are they shown as complex individuals with ambitions, expertise, influence, and independent lives. Interestingly, many of these negative portrayals were not always part of traditional folklore. In Slavic mythology, for example, Baba Yaga is widely known today as a terrifying old witch. Similar patterns can be found in other societies where influential female figures were gradually marginalised, feared, or vilified.
Evolutionary Perspective
These stereotypes are particularly striking because they contradict what we know about human evolution and social development. Humans are among the few species in which women often live decades beyond their reproductive years. According to evolutionary biology research, this extended post-reproductive lifespan is rare in the animal kingdom and is believed to have provided survival advantages to human groups. Scientists have long suggested that this feature evolved because older women played important roles within their communities. Beyond helping raise grandchildren (the "grandmother hypothesis"), they preserved knowledge, strengthened family networks, transmitted cultural traditions, and contributed wisdom gained through experience.
AI and Digital Bias
Yet modern society frequently overlooks these contributions. The emergence of artificial intelligence adds a new dimension to the problem. AI systems learn from vast amounts of online data, much of which already contains social biases. Studies published in Nature have found that older women are underrepresented in online images, text, and digital datasets used to train large language models. Consequently, AI tools can unintentionally reproduce these patterns, further reinforcing stereotypes and exclusions in the digital age.
Consequences and Call to Action
The consequences extend beyond representation. When women repeatedly encounter messages suggesting that ageing diminishes their value, the effects can be profound. It leads to poorer mental health, lower self-esteem, reduced social participation, and diminished quality of life. The burden is especially severe for women who face additional forms of discrimination based on race or ethnicity. But ageing is not a failure; it is a privilege denied to many. The older women whom society too often ignores represent decades of knowledge, resilience, achievement, and experience. By reducing them to stereotypes or pushing them out of view, society loses valuable perspectives that could enrich communities, workplaces, and public life. The challenge before us is therefore not simply to include more older women in films, television, or workplaces. It is to rethink the assumptions that make their invisibility seem normal. A society that values wisdom as much as youth, experience as much as beauty, and contribution as much as appearance will not merely improve the lives of older women, but it will benefit everyone. After all, if ageing is a journey most of us hope to take, then the way we treat older women today is, in many ways, a preview of how we will eventually treat ourselves.
