The value of age: ‘As a 62-year-old woman in business, you’re ignored… you really have to fight your corner’
“They want to work but are left feeling as though they are consigned to the scrap heap. My feeling now is if you can’t get a job, create one for yourself. We have a duration of experience that other people don’t have. We have huge experience in managing people, solving conflicts, motivating people. We have so much to bring to the table.”
“One in nine people aged 66 or older are still in paid work, and many more are engaged in unpaid care work or volunteering in their communities,” says Nat O’Connor, senior public affairs and policy specialist at “Most older adults experience a loss of weekly income, and three in 10 rely on social protection for more than 90 per cent of their income,” says O’Connor. “The Stateis an important source of income for everyone in older age, whereas private pensions tend to be concentrated among those who were formerly higher earners.”
Both older and younger generations have an opportunity to learn from one another and navigate bias through self-reflection and self-worth, highlighting the individual expertise from generation to generation. Moore recommends knowing and appreciating yourself first and not trying to be all things to all people. Advice she freely hands out to everyone, no matter their age.“I have learned that I’m an ideas person, a creative person,” she says.
To that she says, “a lot of women in their 50s and 60s would probably tell you that they don’t actually care what people think”, says Moore. “The freedom that this brings is amazing after years of building resilience. I know my faults. I know my good points. And I always try to improve.”