Searching for the Effect of Age-Based Stereotypes on Personnel Decisions? Try Looking Through an Intersectional Lens

Abstract

Abstract The long-standing notion that personnel decisions are influenced by age-based stereotypes implies that performance-based stigmas associated with age create a social inequality for older workers. However, evidence for the “real world” effects of age-based stereotypes on personnel decisions is lacking—which to some suggests the absence of these otherwise intuitive age-based inequalities. In this commentary, I counter this point and propose that understanding the social inequalities experienced by older workers requires a perspective that acknowledges the intersectional identities held by individuals across their working lives. Within this commentary, I will first briefly define intersectionality including its history within legal literature. Second, I will highlight emerging organizational research that has applied an intersectional lens to questions of workplace stereotypes around race and gender. Third, I will present a theoretical leadership example that highlights how attending to age alone can mask potentially meaningful gender differences in how older women are uniquely stigmatized within leadership roles. Lastly, I will review the small but important body of work on intersectional age-based stereotypes and propose specific areas of future research that would benefit from taking an intersectional approach.