We argue that gerontologists are products of our ageist culture and that we both perpetuate ageism and suffer from internalized ageism ourselves. We make ageist comments, deny our own age, fail to teach students to recognize and confront ageism, and use language that authorizes and categorizes older people. Gerontologists are in ideal positions to confront ageism through our scholarly work, teaching, and community engagement. However, we suggest that, despite our deep gerontological knowledge, we do not have enough awareness, knowledge, and skills for taking anti-ageism actions in these arenas of our professional lives. We offer some suggestions for confronting ageism, including self-study, increasing content on ageism in the classroom and beyond, pointing out ageist language and behaviors to colleagues and students, working with diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campus, and giving careful consideration to our research approaches and academic writing. To go forward, we must increase awareness about ageism and gain skills in promoting anti-ageism.
Key points
-
Despite our training, gerontologists perpetuate ageism and suffer from internalized ageism.
-
Gerontologists can continue building knowledge and skills specific to recognizing and confronting ageism and intentionally applying these to our scholarship, teaching, and community engagement more actively than we currently do.
-
There is a growing collection of resources to support these anti-ageism efforts.
-
Until ageism is eliminated, the full benefits of policies and programs will not be realized.