Equality Bill

It was good to see Harriet Harman and Trevor Phillips talking about the impact of the forthcoming Equality Bill but Phillips also warned there was a lot of ageism in the City, saying: "The financial services industry has a very particular age structure; it hires and promotes preferentially between 25 and 39, and that in itself immediately poses a disadvantage to women," he said. "The culture of the industry effectively says that, after 40, you haven't got anything to contribute." This kind of ageism is also prevalent in other industries particularity advertising for example where the bulk of employees,95%, are under the age of 50.

Bearing in mind that the older generations have often been called "the invisibles" it's a bit scary if you start to be invisible from the age of 40. However, hopefully the increase in the number of older people who are healthier, better educated and more demanding than previous older generations and who are keen to vote will help to ensure that in time this kind of ageism will die out. It would be good if the Equality Bill could in some way accelerate this change.