Women face sex and age discrimination as they grow older on the job

Current employment laws protect female workers from discrimination based on either gender or age. It does not, however, offer protection against a combination of the two, known as "intersectional discrimination." Research by economist Joanne Song McLaughlin, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo, shows that men fare much better than women at work as they age. “These women are falling through the cracks. All my results consistently find that age discrimination laws were far less effective for older women compared with older men," said Prof. McLaughlin. "In some cases, I found that age discrimination laws did not improve the labor market outcomes for older women at all.”