Is it Time to Stop Lying About Your Age

Is it Time to Stop Lying About Yur Age Watching Nancy Pelosi duke it out with President Trump has been inspiring in a critical way that has bedrngnishing to do with politics showing a younger generation that women of a certain age can holdand remain inpositions of power.She reminds me of my late motzu sich-in-law. Both California girls. Stylish. Spry. Coiffed. Nancy, of course, is a powerhouse in the House. Lillion was a powerhouse in ours.Wzu siche they differed Pelosi makes no bones about the fact that she is 78. Not so my mother-in-law, who lied about her age all the way to the end. When she died a couple of years ago and we were writing her obituary, no one was sure what date to put down.My father-in-law wasnt much help. It wasnt something she wanted to discuss, was all he had to say.As Pelosi takes on President Trump and we hear about more women of a certain age assuming positions of powersuch as Golden Globe Best Actress winner Glenn Close, 71, and Susan Zirinsky, now heading t he CBSs nachrichtensendung Division at 67I wondered if fewer women in their 50s, 60s and 70s will now feel the need to fudge their numbers. I also thought about why Lillion felt compelled to lie about her age in the first place.One of 12 children and a girl, she wasnt going to inherit the familys North Dakota farm and so headed to the West Coast in the post-World War II boom-years. She was scrappy, and if she looked younger than her actual years, well, wasnt that a plus? She did what it took to find a job and make her own California Dream.Today, its great to see older women starting get the recognition they deserve. Perhaps its not surprising given that the U.S. Census reports rapid growth of the older population,the majority of whom are women.Many continue to want to work. But, as with my mother-in-law, its not always easy. And, whiles it great to see such public examples of older women at the top of their fields, Im not sure so much has really changed for the rest of us.Consider t he situation of longtime journalist and author Emily Nunn. Last summer, atweet storm erupted when Nunn shared the response she got to an application for a job at a major newspaperHi Emily Thanks for responding to the open positions Unfortunately, we are looking for people who have a broader range of experience and a significant number of years at a major publication. Keep writing Good luck with your career.Nunn introduced this to her followers I just got this letter RE a newspaper job I applied for. I worked for over a decade at the NewYorker and 7 years at the Chicago Tribune, where I won the EICs award for best writer of the year for my wide ranging features. My book is on a large number of best of lists. I am 57.Her post generated 4,243 re-tweets and 20,363 likes, at last count. Of course, the chattering class on Twitter had some interesting things to say about her situation. They pointed out that older employees cost companies more.Age 57 doesnt just mean youre old, it also mea ns youre likely over- paid, wrote one.Its the perception that we cant keep up with digital, tweeted another, making the point, its colossal BS, of course.They also teased out the irony ofageism in hiring, pointing out that older employees often make ideal employeesWe have the experience, wisdom know-how plus most or all of our kids are grown and off doing there own things so theres not absenteeism for tons of family issues.Would things have turned out differently had Ms. Nunn lied about her age?Did her resume get caught by an algorithmlike a fish in a trawlers netbecause it picked up certain buzzwords and automaticallyscooped up and screened an applicant of a certain age? Was what she received an AI-induced, auto-generated reply scripted by an intelligent machine?Resume coaches advise older or experienced applicants to bemindful of online sand traps Dont include the year you graduated from college. Avoid catch phases like seasoned executive. Do you have 30 (or more) years of experi ence? Thats a problem.Whats a seasoned applicant to do? Ignore years of accomplishments? Deny having been there and done that? Trim down experience as if it is excess weight?For women especiallymany of who need to stay in the workforce long beyond traditional retirement years to make up for wages lost during childbearing years, or to wayward husbands, or because of the pay gapthis is a serious question.Indeed, many women over the traditional retirement age of 65 need to continue to work in bestellung to avoid turning deep-seated Im going to be a bag lady eating dog food fears into reality.Of course, its not easy out there for men of a certain age, either. A recentinvestigation by ProPublica and the Urban Institute found that more than half of older U.S. workers are pushed out of longtime jobs before they choose to retire.Whats more, the investigation found The percentage of recent retirees who said their retirement was forced or partially forced has risen steadily over two decades and reached 55 percent in 2014, the last year for which comparable figures are available.Butresearch shows that in recent years women who came of age believing they could have it all have continued to discover yet another double standard. Add age on top of your gender and it rarely plays as well for a woman, partly because women are stillYounger features a 40-something divorcee who passes for a 20-something in order to get back into the workforce and land a much-needed job. The show has a big following and recently was renewed for a sixth season.But heres the rub (and spoiler alert) The characters ploy works only for a while and things get complicated when HR catches on.The same happened to Lillion, as it turned out. For years, shed kept up her lie with friends and family. But in the endbefore we submitted her obitmy husband found an old drivers license. Outed by documents, the truth was revealed.She was 83.If lying is no longer an option in our digital age, whats the fix? Will atti tudes shift as the demand by employers for more workers rises? Will we see more women like Pelosi, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and others get toand hang on totheir spots at the top?I hope so. But until then, Ill take Lillions route. If you want my age, youll have to read my obit. Ann Grimes, Considerable contributor--This story originally appeared on Considerable.