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A couple of years ago, after finishing a maternity-cover contract managing a small team, my younger colleagues shared their honest feedback with me. One comment stood out: They had expected me \u2013 their new manager in her 40s \u2013 to be stuffy and stern.<\/span><\/p>\n Two were in their 20s, one in her early 30s. I was 43 then, and that number had already shaped their ideas about me before we worked together. But they told me they were relieved to be wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n Being on the receiving end of that assumption made two things click at once: why some women would rather not reveal their age \u2013 and how quickly I had once judged them for not doing so.<\/span><\/p>\n When I was in my 20s, I didn\u2019t understand why some women kept their age private. It seemed unnecessary, maybe even a bit dishonest. To me, age was just a fact, so why hide it?<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout my 20s and 30s, I worked at women\u2019s lifestyle magazines and often interviewed women in their 40s and older. I admired them. They were accomplished, confident, and comfortable in ways I wasn\u2019t yet. That\u2019s exactly why their secrecy confused me.<\/span><\/p>\n I remember interviewing a successful woman \u2013 easily the most interesting person I\u2019d spoken to that month. When she asked me, gently but firmly, not to include her age, I was genuinely baffled and thought her request came from insecurity.<\/span><\/p>\n To me, her age showed all she had achieved. I didn\u2019t realise she knew something I hadn\u2019t learned yet: That once people knew her age, they might judge those achievements differently.<\/span><\/p>\n Instead of seeing what she had accomplished on its own terms, they would measure them against where they thought a woman of her age should already be in her career or life.<\/span><\/p>\n Looking back, the irony is obvious. I was working inside the very system that creates age anxiety, writing skincare features about creams, serums and the idea of turning back time.<\/span><\/p>\nWHEN AGEISM COSTS WOMEN CAREER OPPORTUNITIES<\/span><\/h2>\n