Advocacy for 50 year old women

With his test The flamboyants, the French psychoanalyst Charlotte Montpezat is interested in the place of women over 50 in society. Women often invisible, stigmatized, stereotyped, while they live a period of their lives where they are more free, available and fulfilled than ever.

On his 45th birthday, on his desk, a letter from the human resources department informs him of his new “senior” status. in the business. ” Senior “, Really ? Is she already in the world of pre-retirees? she wonders. Has she suddenly aged without realizing it? “What a shock, and at 45, an age when you are in great shape, efficient, creative, dynamic… senior, the word cut my legs off,” says Charlotte Montpezat, whom we contacted in Paris. “Because we use the word senior at 45, but also at 85, but it’s not quite the same thing! “, she says.

She later discovers that this letter was related to the objectives of the Ministry of Labor and was part of the device called the senior chord in order to prepare employees to pass the milestone of their 50th birthday.

But why would you want to put aside these women over 50? This is the big question that is addressed in this essay. Charlotte Montpezat starts from her own experience, but asks specialists about the representation and employability of these women, which is a real problem. In France, there are 17 million women over 45 and 9 million of working age.

“We cannot ignore such an important part of society. We are the first generation of women in the history of humanity to have the chance to be, between 45 and 65 years old, in full power of our means, physical and intellectual. We really have to shake up the stereotypes and break the injunctions that limit us,” she says. Hence the title The flamboyantsbecause these women are more fulfilled than ever.

“I am 57 years old, and frankly I have never been so fit and good in my sneakers! We are, at 50, relieved of family responsibilities and mental burden (because our children are grown), freed from the procreative function, free, strong, active, available, full of resources and experiences, we must change the society’s gaze of the outdated woman over 50. This new age, let’s say it, we have to invent it, ”says Charlotte Montpezat.

An age sucks

Many women fear the social identity of the 50-year-old woman. “Because it’s related to the body and biology. The philosopher Camille Froidevaux-Metterie writes that the existence of women is determined by their physicality. While men live, in professional life, as if they had no body or child, women are always sent back to it”, analyzes the author. She recalls that it was in 1972 that Susan Sontag published The Double Standard of Aging, where she points out that the aging of women and men are two very different realities. The depreciation is greater for women than for men.

“What we also see is that the representation of women over 50 is not adequate. We immediately think of a grandmother! And paradoxically, we see Martha Stewart on the cover of the magazine Sports Illustrated. It’s nice that an 80-year-old woman is on the cover, but she doesn’t look her age and she’s been photoshopped a lot… and what we end up showing is not an 80-year-old woman! »

The author believes that the less women aged 50 and over are shown, the less they feel showable.

The other annoying subject is discrimination. According to the International Labor Organization, ageism and sexism are the two greatest forms of discrimination, ahead of ethnic origin and disability. A World Health Organization survey conducted in 2021 in 57 countries reveals that one in two people have moderately or strongly ageist attitudes. “These are prejudices that are conveyed throughout society, businesses, the media, cinema and social networks. I think we have to recognize the problem and fight it. Faced with such discrimination, the will of women and companies is not enough, the public authorities must intervene to make things happen. »

The flamboyants

Charlotte Montpezat

Equator Editions

208 pages