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Older people experience prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination because of their age. Sometimes however it is not age alone which drives unequal treatment. Other forms of discrimination can come into play, such as that based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and other characteristics.  

In our work, we strive to increase understanding of and address the complex forms of discrimination faced by older people. We aim to highlight the vast diversity of older people and stress how socio-economic status, gender, ethnic background, and other factors influence our experience of later life.  
  

Highlights 

• In 2021, we organized a session at the Fundamental Rights Platform on intersectionality in older age.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, we published an article on intersectionality for the ASEM Global Ageing Center and addressed the multiple discrimination faced by older women, older persons with disabilities, older Roma and older LGBTI people.
• In 2018, we ran the 10-week Ageing Equal campaign raising awareness of how ageism affects different groups of older people.
• We spoke at the 13th session of the Conference of State Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP13), which hosted a Roundtable on addressing the rights and needs of older persons with disabilities.
• In our response to the call of the UN Independent Expert on the human rights of older women, we discussed age and gender inequalities with regard to employment, poverty and social exclusion, pensions and health and we highlighted the lack of data disaggregated by age groups and the under-representation of older women in most decision-making positions.
• In 2023, we published a joint report with ILGA Europe looking at the specific & diverse situations of older LGBTI people in Europe.
    

Understanding multiple discrimination  

Multiple discrimination is an umbrella term used to describe cases when one ground of discrimination interacts with and/or compounds other forms of inequality and disadvantage. Multiple discrimination can manifest in different ways: 

• Additive discrimination takes place when several grounds operate separately. In this case, the cause of discrimination is additive, because there are distinct sources of inequality that operate independently. For example, an older migrant woman may be subjected to unequal treatment on the three separate but additive grounds of being old, migrant, and a woman. 

• Intersectional discrimination occurs when two or multiple grounds operate simultaneously and interact in an inseparable manner, producing a unique and qualitatively different form of discrimination than the simple addition of the separate discrimination grounds. Typically, intersectional discrimination causes aggravated, more intense, and systemic/structural forms of disadvantage. An intersectional lens allows us to make visible experiences of discrimination that would otherwise remain undetected using only a single ground analysis. For example, older people with disabilities might experience an increased risk of marginalization or institutionalization that is not shared by younger people with disabilities nor with older people without disabilities.

Moreover, disadvantage earlier in life can result in increased likelihood of inequality in old age. Therefore, discrimination amongst older people also needs to consider the discrimination that people carry with them into old age:

• Cumulative discrimination refers to the impact of discrimination over time, on several occasions, across domains or throughout an individual’s lifecourse. For example, older Roma are likely to carry with them the cumulative disadvantage of a lifetime of exclusion and deprivation from access to employment, adequate housing, and necessary health care, which may create additional disadvantages in old age.   
  

Our key demands

• Recognize and increase visibility of the diversity of older people 
• Need for more disaggregated data on old age and older people  
• Adoption of horizontal equal treatment directive covering age discrimination (among other grounds) including multiple discrimination beyond the field of employment 

• Integration of older age/ageism perspective in the implementation of existing EU equality strategies and action plans  
• Adoption of an EU Age Equality Strategy as a key tool to fight ageism and multiple discrimination in older age across the EU 
• More support and funding for organisations representing minority groups and for small grassroots organisations to better address intersectionality in old age and beyond 

  
How we work

To address multiple forms of inequalities in older age, we work with AGE members and other equality networks, such as the European Disability Forum (EDF), the European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network (ERGO), the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA Europe), the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), and the European network of equality bodies (Equinet).
  

Useful links  

To learn more about our work on multiple discrimination click on the following links:

• Our thematic webpage on Older Women
• Our work on human rights & non-discrimination
• Our work on elder abuse
• Our position on fighting hate speech and involvement in the DIGITOL and SDD projects

List of AGE members working on multiple discrimination  

On gender equality:

• Older Women’s Network (Netherlands)
• Older Women’s Network Europe (EU) 

On older Roma, minority ethnic communities, and/or migrant people:

• Red Cross (Bulgaria)
• Eläkeliito (Finland)
• 50+ Hellas (Greece)
• Age & Opportunity (Ireland)
• Anziani e non solo (Italy) 

On older LGBTI people:

• Zivot 90 via their Rainbow Zivot 90 Initiative (Czech Republic)
• BAGSO via their members BISS and Lesben und Alter (Germany)
• 50+ Hellas via their cooperation with Proud Senior Greece (Greece) 
• Age & Opportunity (Ireland)
• Anziani e non solo (Italy)
• CASO 50+ (Portugal)
• Fundacio 26 de Diciembre (Spain) 

On older people with disabilities:

• Swedish-speaking Pensioners’ Association (Finland)
• BAGSO via their member Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Association for Rehabilitation, the Association for the Hard of Hearing, or the German Alzheimer Society (Germany)
• Anziani e non solo (Italy)
• Zveza društev upokojencev Slovenije (Slovenia)

It should be noted that older people experiencing multiple discrimination may not have the capacity or resources to get involved within civil society organisations. This absence of formal representation shouldn’t prevent us from engaging with representatives of community groups existing at grassroots level and use our platforms to make their voices heard.

If you want to share your work on/experience of multiple discrimination in old age, feel free to get in touch with us. 
   

Relevant resources

• Report on older people with disabilities by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of persons with disabilities
• Report on older women by the UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by older people
• Work on older LGBTI people by ILGA Europe
• What is a rights-based approach to ageing? Read our short guide and find more resources here
• Read also our article: New report bridges the Green Paper on Ageing and EU Disability Rights Strategy

 
For more information, you may contact Nena Georgantzi: nena.georgantzi@age-platform.eu