Internalised and gendered ageism and disableism and its consequences for labour market participation of older workers: a mixed method study

一个重要的公共政策目标是通过鼓励老年工人推迟退休来延长他们的工作寿命。研究表明，除了经历直接的年龄歧视外，个人还会内化对老年人和老年工人的刻板印象。当他们自己变老时，他们可能会将自己排除在工作环境或职业机会之外。刻板印象的例子包括，年龄较大的员工生产率较低，工作积极性较低，但同时更有经验和智慧。对于变老意味着什么，很多人的解释都与衰老有关，也就是说，比起年轻的员工，他们的“能力”更差。然而，残疾歧视和年龄歧视的研究在很大程度上是在相互分离的情况下发展起来的。这个项目旨在评估两者之间的重叠，以加深我们的理解，并使年龄歧视的影响能够更成功地得到解决。此外，内在化的年龄歧视被认为与劳动力市场上的自我排斥和工作中的发展机会有关。因此，内在化的年龄歧视可能会严重阻碍延长工作年限的政策目标。通过调查内在化的年龄歧视与残疾歧视和自我排斥之间的关系，该项目将调查除了年长工人被他人排斥的歧视之外，年长工人也可能在多大程度上排斥自己。考虑到性别差异也很重要，因为男子和妇女有不同的劳动力市场历史，而且研究表明，年龄歧视和残疾歧视都是性别歧视。该项目的创新之处在于，它将通过分析定量和定性数据来评估这些关系。定性数据集允许探索个人如何基于内在的年龄歧视和残疾歧视来描述他们未来的工作和退休计划。定量数据将有助于概括定性数据的结果，并测试感兴趣的变量之间的特定关系，如年龄、健康、残疾和性别。这项研究将提高我们对年龄歧视和残疾歧视之间的关系以及它如何影响自我排斥的理解。因此，它将说明应采取哪些干预措施，以提高老年工人在劳动力市场的参与度，并提出哪些陈规定型观念对他们的就业特别不利。该项目将使来自企业和慈善部门的利益攸关方共同努力研究这项研究的影响，以产生实际的干预措施。它的一个重要目标是确保该项目产生的知识不仅限于学术受众，而且将通过从业人员和公共网络广泛传播。该提案涉及ESRC的两个战略重点：生产率和心理健康(程度较轻)。老年劳动力的作用在工业战略(英国政府，2017年)中得到承认，鼓励老年工人参加再培训、终身学习和推迟退休将对技能短缺和生产率产生影响。众所周知，歧视是一种可能影响心理健康的压力源(Pascoe和Richman，2009)。更好地理解内在化的年龄歧视和残疾歧视可以揭示这些问题，并指出减轻歧视影响的干预措施。

An important public policy goal is to extend the working lives of older workers by encouraging them to delay retirement. Research has indicated that in addition to experiencing direct age discrimination individuals internalise stereotypes about older people and older workers. When they are themselves older, they may exclude themselves from work situations or career opportunities. Examples of stereotypes include that older workers are less productive and less motivated at work, though at the same time more experienced and wiser. Much of the interpretation of what it means to be older is related to decline and as being less 'able' than younger workers. However, the study of disableism and ageism have largely developed in separation from each other. This project aims to assess the overlap between the two to deepen our understanding and enable the effects of ageism to be tackled more successfully. Moreover, internalised ageism is hypothesized as related to self-exclusion from the labour market and development opportunities within work. Therefore, internalised ageism may severely hinder the policy goal of extended working lives. By investigating the relationship between internalised ageism and disableism and self-exclusion this project will investigate the extent to which in addition to discrimination where older workers are excluded by others, older workers may also exclude *themselves*. It is also important to take gender differences into account as men and women have different labour market histories and because research has shown that both ageism and disableism are gendered. This project is innovative in that it will assess these relationships by analysing both quantitative and qualitative data. The qualitative dataset allows an exploration of how individuals themselves describe their future working and retirement plans based on internalised ageism and disableism. The quantitative data will help generalise the findings of the qualitative data as well as testing specific relationships between the variables of interest, such as age, health, disability and gender. This research will improve our understanding of how ageism and disableism are related to one another and how it affects self-exclusion. Therefore it will give indications for interventions to increase the labour market participation of older workers and it will suggest which stereotypes are especially detrimental for their employment. The project will involve stakeholders from business and the charitable sectors to work through the implications of this study to produce practical interventions. It is an important aim to ensure that the knowledge generated from this project will not be limited to academic audiences, but will be widely distributed through practitioner and public networks. The proposal speaks to two of the ESRC's strategic priorities: productivity and to a lesser extent mental health. The role of the older workforce is acknowledged in the Industrial Strategy (HM Government, 2017) and encouraging older workers to engage in retraining, lifelong learning and delay retirement will have an impact on skills shortages and productivity. Discrimination is known to be a stressor that can impact upon mental health (Pascoe and Richman, 2009) a better understanding of internalised ageism and disableism can shed light on these issues and point towards interventions for ameliorating the impacts of discrimination.