Alexandra Savina

It is customary to be indignant at the dominance of Anglicisms in the Russian language, but a number of important concepts in the Russian language have neither analogues nor an established translation. We talk about twenty problems and concepts existing in modern Russia, the designations of which came to us from the English language.

Outing

(English outing)

Unlike coming out, when a person consciously and voluntarily reveals his sexual orientation or gender identity, outing involves disclosing this information about another person without his or her consent. The American LGBT organization GLAAD warns that outing can lead to serious consequences: representatives of the LGBT community can lose their jobs, housing, friends and family because of it, outing can threaten their lives and health. Thus, The Matrix director Lilly Wachowski recently came out and announced that she is a transgender woman, fearing that journalists would talk about her gender identity without her consent.

Body positivity

(eng. body positive)

The essence of the body positive movement fits into the capacious formula “my body is my business”: representatives of the movement advocate freedom from constantly changing standards of beauty, for acceptance of oneself and one’s own appearance, against fatphobia, or fat shaming (judging fat people) and skinny shaming (judging thin people) people).

At the same time, representatives of the movement do not call for completely abandoning work on one’s own body - but only if this is a conscious and voluntary decision of a person, and to the extent that seems necessary and sufficient to him. As a result, the ideology of body positivity does not support a painful preoccupation with one’s own body and driving oneself to exhaustion with endless training.

Gaslighting

(English: gaslighting)

Gaslighting is a form of psychological violence in which one of the partners tries to confuse the other, expresses doubts about his adequacy, distorts information so that the victim of violence begins to doubt his memories, emotional stability and the objectivity of his perception. The abuser devalues ​​the victim’s feelings, experiences and memories (“It didn’t happen,” “You’re making it up,” “You’re just overreacting to everything”), and may also deny other episodes of violence in this way.

The term originated from the play Gas Light, which was made into a film of the same name by George Cukor, which describes a similar case of partner violence: a husband forces his wife to believe that she is crazy in order to hide his own crimes.

Gendercide

gendercide

Gendercide is the systematic killing of people based on gender. The term was coined by American Mary Ann Warren, author of the book Gendercide: The Consequences of Sex Selection, published in 1985. Gendercide can take two forms: femicide (the systematic killing of women) and androcide (the systematic killing of men).

"Glass Ceiling"

glass ceiling

"Glass ceiling" is a term used to describe the invisible barrier that hinders women's career advancement. At the same time, the real achievements and professionalism of women in such situations do not play any role: often leadership positions that are easily occupied by men remain unattainable for women due to gender stereotypes. The path to equality promises to be a long one: according to the World Economic Forum, at the current pace of global development, it will not be until 2133 that men and women will receive equal pay for doing the same work.

Harassment

(English harassment)

Harassment refers to sexual harassment and harassment. Harassment includes intimidating or coercing the victim into sex, unwanted hugs or touching, assaulting the victim with the intent to rape, and staring and comments from strangers on the street. Women face harassment in a variety of settings - on the street, at work, on the Internet.

The danger of harassment is usually underestimated: women are encouraged to take street harassment as a compliment (although in fact they have nothing to do with compliments) and enjoy sexual harassment. At the same time, more and more countries are fighting harassment at the legislative level: for example, street harassment was recently recognized as an offense in Portugal.

Childfree

(English: child-free)

Supporters of the childfree ideology consciously and fundamentally do not want to have children. The essence of the childfree movement is often misunderstood: in this case we are not talking about the inability to have children for any reason or about postponing the birth of children to a later date; A childfree's decision not to have children is a consequence of a conscious and voluntary choice. Not all childfree people dislike children as such; people who do not like children are called child haters (however, they do not always share the views of childfree and can have their own children).

Often childfree people, and especially women, face discrimination and misunderstanding, especially in a society where the influence of stereotypes is strong and where childbearing is considered the main task of a woman.

Ableism

(English ableism)

Ableism is a relatively new term used to describe discrimination against people with disabilities and developmental disabilities. The word itself appeared in the early 80s of the last century, around the same time when the movement to protect the rights of people with disabilities began to gain strength in the world, and it began to be used relatively widely only a few years ago.

Ableism refers to a variety of types and forms of discrimination: for people with disabilities and developmental disabilities, not only the lack of special conditions can be humiliating, but also the widespread idea that they a priori need help - even if they do not ask for it.

Ageism

(English ageism)

Ageism is age discrimination that is experienced mainly by older people. This may include policies and measures that target people of certain ages (for example, older people often have a harder time finding work), stereotyping older people, and demeaning attitudes towards older people. Children and teenagers can also experience ageism; their ideas and opinions are often not taken seriously due to their age.

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13.08.2015 07:34

The media doesn't like to talk about old people. It's not very "sexy". In public discussion, the problems of the elderly are most often subject to the so-called “SEPization” (“This is not my problem” - “Somebody Else’s Problem”), and do not find a place in public discourse.

Sometimes there are reports about resilient centenarians: “In the south of England, on June 13, there was a wedding in which the word “age” had a special meaning. Imagine, a 103-year-old man married a 91-year-old! They probably returned from the wedding on a scooter for the disabled, ha -ha-ha." Another type of media appeal to the topic of old age: talk about poverty, loneliness, etc.

Third: discussions about increasing life expectancy.

These three topics are related. There are more and more elderly people.

Prolongation of old age

Life expectancy is really increasing. Today's forty-year-olds will live, on average, at least ninety years. And the issue of ensuring old age, pension savings, pension funds will probably be the main socio-economic issue of the coming decades.

After all, when we talk about prolonging life, then, roughly speaking, we are talking about prolonging old age, about increasing the number of disabled, biologically infertile people requiring social assistance. Economists are already drawing pictures that should frighten people who are now working without employment contracts and will not receive the right to a pension with hunger and poverty. Economic pessimists make it worse: no pension funds or savings will be enough to ensure this increase in life expectancy.

There is some hope in Israel, thanks to demography, which the same economists curse incessantly. Thanks to demographic growth in Israel, there are many more children than parents, although this increase is mainly due to not very productive sectors, where both children and parents need subsidies.

In Europe, where there are already a quarter fewer children than pensioners, it is difficult to imagine that future generations of workers will be able to support an increasing number of pensioners.

Ageism - age discrimination

There is such a concept as “ageism” (from the Latin ageism). The originator of the term, Robert Butler, gave the first and most well-known definition of ageism. He described ageism as "reflecting the deep-seated anxieties of some young and middle-aged people, their personal aversion and feelings of dislike for aging people, illness, disability, and fears of helplessness, worthlessness and death."

The term "ageism" first arose in journalistic polemics. And only then is it scientifically described. Correspondent Carl Bernstein, the same one who later became famous for exposing the Watergate scandal, asked Butler to comment on the resistance of residents of a prestigious suburb of Washington to the construction of a nursing home near them. Residents of the glamorous town were categorically against it. Butler, then thirty, was already considered an authority on aging. He said in an interview that he sees such discrimination as analogous to sexism and racism. Only this is age discrimination towards old people. So, on the fly, in conversation, by analogy, the term “ageism” arose. This interview appeared on the front page of the Washington Times, and the phrase about ageism was highlighted in a separate “cube” printed separately in large font.

Many sociologists consider ageism, scientifically described in 1969, to be the greatest threat to social development. In The Encyclopedia of Aging, Robert Butler defined ageism as “the process of systematically stereotyping and discriminating against people because of their old age, as well as racism and sexism because of their skin color and sex.”

The cult of eternal youth

In the future, given the trends in human development, ageism is a greater threat than national xenophobia, racism and sexism. It should be taken into account that if racism or sexism, discrimination based on religion and nationality, gender or origin still meets with public resistance, then gerontophobia, spread by the “glossy” media in the form of an almost fascist ideology, the stereotypical belief that a person must be young, healthy, attractive and successful - passes with almost impunity. This relatively recent fad - the stereotype of the need to look slim and young - is drummed into the aging and fattening humanity.

This cult of glossy youth has led to the emergence of an industry in which trillions of dollars are invested: the market of diets, therapeutic fasting, balanced nutrition, “organic” food, bioactive supplements, discussions on the topic “not all yoghurts are created equal,” fitness centers, plastic surgery, vigilant depressive and unhealthy tracking of one's own health, the popularity of mobile applications that track physiological functions, and so on and so forth.

Since time immemorial, magicians, scientists and alchemists have puzzled over the invention of the elixir of eternal youth. We have not made much progress on this issue yet. After all, prolonging life means prolonging old age. But now we have become more advanced in the field of technology that creates the illusion. Injections, radiation, surgery, complex devices - all this should serve to create the appearance of a miracle.

Geronophobic stereotypes dictate norms: to be ashamed and hide signs of age, to hide signs of aging, to look youthful with all your might. A woman who does not make active and constant attempts at rejuvenation is now considered abnormal. Aging people are convinced by all means that if they do not buy something that brings them closer to the ideal of eternal youth, then they go straight to weakness and despair.

“Why do we need this old wallet?”

Ageism moves from the “gloss” into stereotypical criteria in the employment market.

For many positions, applicants no older than a certain age are accepted, despite the experience and other undoubted merits of older ones. When selecting personnel, companies proceed from the axiomatics that they need not experienced, but young employees who supposedly have more time and effort, who seem to be easier to compromise, are more flexible, etc. Although this is not entirely true. A fifty-year-old woman with adult children, as a rule, has much more time to work than a twenty-year-old woman who needs to organize her life. And she has much more energy left for work. And when it comes to flexibility and the ability to compromise...

Polish demographer Piotr Szukalski says one of the main features of ageism is that older people begin to feel "invisible" in all public places. They are not noticed, they are not taken into account, they are not paid attention to. Ageism is disdain. The needs, values, and opinions of older people in the social hierarchy are considered less important than the interests of young people.

The heroine of a melodrama with varicose veins?

The consolation may be the statement of another trend: the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200bold age and youth is changing a lot. A woman of "Balzac's age"? This is an expression that became commonly used after the appearance of Honore de Balzac's novel "A Woman of Thirty."

Today, when we say that a person is “middle-aged,” we mean that he is about 50 years old, but before he was a man of pre-retirement age, who was supposed to already be thinking about the fact that he will soon need to switch to kefir and soar his legs in a basin.

Thirty years ago it was expected that a popular hero should be a boy. In Irwin Shaw’s novel “An Evening in Byzantium,” the following dialogue takes place regarding a certain film script:

- Are his characters under thirty and have a lot of explicit scenes?
- No.
- Oh my God. Two points are already not in your favor. Okay, let me read it, let's think about what we can do.

Times have changed roughly since the early 2000s of this millennium. Bruce Willis, whose cinematic image is traditionally associated with “Die Hard”, with the role of the savior of humanity, does not at all look like a young man.

The whole point is that the consumer has changed. The consumer who wants to identify with the hero is a middle-aged person.

Even melodrama and romance novels operate with middle-aged heroes in the vague range of thirty to forty. True, the heroine of melodramas with varicose veins has not yet been shown to us.

“Normal labor potential” and age discrimination

Indeed, the older generation has many positive social characteristics that allow it to play a positive role in the labor market. Older workers have knowledge and professional skills acquired throughout their working lives, and the generation of Russians retiring today also has a fairly high level of education.

In the professional structure of employed pensioners, about 40% are specialists of higher and secondary qualifications. The share of highly qualified specialists among working pensioners is almost 1.5 times higher than among non-pensioners.

Older workers are more likely to have qualities such as maturity, reliability, and stability. Such workers demonstrate good social skills, rarely change jobs, and are characterized by fewer industrial accidents and a more positive attitude toward work.

However, on the way to realizing the social and labor potential of older people, barriers arise that prevent them from fully realizing their “normal labor potential.” Such obstacles include, first of all, age discrimination and ageist stereotypes regarding third-age workers, which are rooted in the world of work.

At the same time, discrimination based on age is quite widespread in Russian society, also at the institutional level.

Features of age discrimination

Issues of equality and the fight against discrimination are one of the key areas in the field of human rights protection in the modern world. But unlike, for example, gender discrimination, which is quite widely known, the problems of age discrimination are still treated as a new direction.

In the context of the demographic aging of the Russian population, when fewer and fewer people are entering working age and more and more are retiring, increasing the labor activity of pensioners and older people is an undoubted benefit for the Russian labor market.

This makes the problem of eradicating age discrimination relevant in both theoretical and practical aspects.

Discrimination or unequal treatment on the basis of age differs from other types of discrimination because anyone is a potential victim. If gender discrimination is based on characteristics that belong to a person from birth and in the vast majority of cases remain unchanged throughout his life, then age is a relative concept. For example, an athlete is considered “old” at 30 years old, and a politician is considered “young” at 50 years old. Or another example: a 40-year-old worker is young in comparison with his colleague of retirement age, but he is significantly older than a 30-year-old applicant who is applying at the same time for a certain job.

Young workers are discriminated against in the labor market due to a lack of work experience, and older workers, due to the fact that, according to employers, their knowledge and experience are outdated.

Consequently, a person at any age can become a potential victim of age discrimination. However, it has been proven that the likelihood of experiencing age discrimination increases significantly as you age.

This type of discrimination is called ageism.

Age discrimination is less overt than other types of discrimination because people's physical and mental abilities do change over the years, and not all age-related differences in treatment can be considered discrimination, especially in the area of ​​labor relations. Therefore, age discrimination cannot always be clearly identified in practice. For example, it is not age discrimination to refuse to hire for jobs that require significant physical effort or require quick reactions, but such jobs are usually included in the relevant legislatively approved lists.

The problem of discrimination against older workers began to become more acute during the period of reforms in the 90s of the twentieth century, when the Russian labor market was still in its infancy. If throughout Soviet history, with its extensive economic development and “personnel shortage,” the employment of pensioners was encouraged in every possible way, then the sharp reduction in production and traditional jobs at state-owned enterprises in the early 1990s was accompanied by an equally sharp displacement of pensioners from employment.

Among specialists in employment problems, it is generally accepted that the reaction of the new Russian labor market to the unprecedented depth of the transformation crisis of the Russian economy in transition was “unique” and even “paradoxical”, since the sharp reduction in production was not accompanied by an adequate release of labor. “If during the period from 1990 to mid-1995, GDP fell by 40%, and industrial production by 51%, then the overall decline in employment reached, according to official statistics, 9%, and in industry - 23.2%.”

It should be noted here that neither politicians nor labor market experts, who expected and never saw an “avalanche-like increase in unemployment” in the 1990s, never paid attention to the almost instantaneous “throwout” from the sphere of production of millions of pensioners who worked there, who fulfilled the role of a “safety cushion” for the Russian labor market and the economy as a whole. Indeed, in the 1980s, when it became possible for those employed in blue-collar positions to receive both wages and a pension at the same time, from 26 to 30% of all retired workers continued to work in the production sector (at different periods).

In accordance with the 1991 Law “On Employment,” pensioners laid off and dismissed from enterprises could not obtain official unemployed status from the employment service, and the Motov concept of “unemployed” did not yet exist. Therefore, 9% of the unemployed, which was recorded by official statistics in the 1990s, is an indicator underestimated by the amount of pensioners who lost their jobs during that period, who remained “invisible” victims of reforms for statistics and society.

“New” employers preferred to hire young workers, so already in the early 1990s, discriminatory job advertisements became widespread, in which the main emphasis was placed on the age of the desired workers. This discriminatory practice continued to exist until the present day. Only in July 2013, amendments to the Federal Law “On Employment” were adopted, prohibiting discrimination in employers’ advertisements for vacant jobs (more on these amendments will be below).

Research conducted by the Center for Social and Labor Rights (CSLT) in 2007-2008 showed that 44% of job advertisements in Russia and about 60% in Moscow were discriminatory, since they directly indicated the age limits of job applicants.

It was noted that job advertisements contained unlawful requirements regarding the employee’s age even more often (44%) than requirements regarding gender (29%).

Problems of age discrimination are also covered in the Russian media, where materials are often published about inequality in approaches to representatives of different age groups when selecting candidates for work, as well as during labor activities.

According to experts, age discrimination generates less social tension, but is more widespread than other types of discrimination.

A sociological survey conducted by the Federal Employment Service of Moscow revealed that 56% of respondents encountered age discrimination when hiring. The study found that it is age discrimination that leads among other types of violation of labor rights of workers.

Thus, statistics and research confirm that differences in treatment based on age are more ingrained in the modern world of work than differences associated with other discriminatory grounds.

There is quite a lot of evidence that the problems of social well-being of older people in Russia have become worse again in recent years. A survey conducted by VTsIOM in September 2009 showed that the vast majority of Russians (67%) believe that the rights of older people in the country are not respected, while in 2005 59% held this opinion. Therefore, the task of studying the problems of discrimination against people of the third age remains relevant.

Areas, areas and causes of age discrimination

Violation of the rights and discrimination of older people begins at the legislative level and ends at the level of labor and family relations. An analysis of the prevalence of causes of age discrimination in Russia shows that they lie mainly in three areas - in the field of legislation, as well as in the field of labor and interpersonal relations.

On the one hand, the imperfection of Russian legislation leads to the fact that the law poorly protects older people from discriminatory actions, and the failure to comply with laws by officials and employers, coupled with the legal illiteracy of the population, further contributes to the spread of discriminatory practices against older people.

On the other hand, in Russian society, including in the media, ageist stereotypes are widespread, belittling the social role and labor potential of people of the older generation. Ageist stereotypes, which view older people as unnecessary ballast for society and family, are one of the main causes of discrimination or prejudice against older people. The image of “poor old people” is widely circulated in the media (and this means “poor” not only financially). This attitude is called “victimization” and is also a type of discrimination.

The VTsIOM survey mentioned above showed that to the question “What feelings do you usually experience when you see an elderly person?”, 38% of respondents answered pity (this is the second most important answer after “respect” 57%, respectively). T.V. Smirnova, who studied the texts of newspaper publications “AiF” and “Trud” using the method of content analysis for the period 2000-2009, came to the conclusion about the social construction of a negative image of an elderly person and a worker in modern media and in society as a whole. This leads to the fact that in Russian society there is exclusion, or exclusion from public life, of people of the older generation, as well as an increase in social distance between representatives of the elderly and other age groups. At the same time, her research showed that the higher the level of material wealth, the stronger the desire to distance oneself from the elderly in social space. For example, more than 50% of financially secure respondents had a negative attitude towards the possibility of an older person taking the position of a work colleague, while among respondents with average and low income, this point of view was shared by a significantly smaller number of people - 25% and 13%, respectively.

By distancing itself, society pushes older people out of public life into the family environment and focuses them on the “survival” program, thereby limiting the possibilities of realizing their social and labor potential. In modern Russia, less than 30% of elderly people under the age of 65 continue to work, while in the USA and Switzerland there are twice as many (in the USA - almost 60%, in Switzerland - about 65%). This is largely due to the later retirement age in these countries. But, as studies in Russia show, many representatives of the older generation who have maintained their health and social activity stop working not so much of their own free will, but under pressure from employers, the team, as well as ageist stereotypes that have developed in society.

Imperfections of Russian legislation

Russian legislation is based on an open model of prohibition of discrimination, which provides for the establishment of a general prohibition of discrimination or inequality in the treatment of citizens. At the same time, in modern legislation there is no single definition of the concept of “discrimination”, and in different Russian legislative acts it is interpreted differently.

In addition, it is not always clear from the laws who and how should be punished for discrimination. We also do not have anti-discrimination legislation, which is widespread in the countries of the European Union (EU).

Such key concepts as direct and indirect discrimination, illegal practices, victimization, justified differences in treatment, etc., characteristic of anti-discrimination laws of foreign countries, are not reflected in Russian law. In this regard, the fact of discrimination (including age discrimination) is quite difficult to prove in court. In accordance with Article 56 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, it is stipulated that an employee who believes that he has been subjected to discrimination in the world of work is obliged to prove this fact in court. That is, in Russian law, the burden of proving the fact of discrimination lies with the employee, and the employer who committed discrimination is subject to the presumption of innocence.

In the EU countries, as well as in the USA, Great Britain and Canada, the approach to proving guilt in cases of discrimination is fundamentally different: there the burden of proving non-discrimination lies on the defendant, that is, on the employer, who is obliged to prove that the principle of equality has not been violated.

In practice, it is very difficult for a Russian employee to prove the fact of discrimination, and therefore cases of discrimination are won in court by our employees extremely rarely, unlike the vast majority of other labor disputes. Even in obvious cases of discrimination, it is difficult for workers to obtain justice in Russian courts. For example, the so-called Stupko case had a great resonance among human rights activists and lawyers, in which the Leninsky District Court of Voronezh on January 28, 2008 initially rejected the employee’s claim, despite the employer’s written refusal to hire an elderly man as an accountant as unsuitable “on the basis of age.” .

In the Constitution of the Russian Federation, where in Article 19 “the state guarantees equality of rights and freedoms of man and citizen, regardless of gender, race, nationality, language<...>, as well as other circumstances”, there is no direct indication of the prohibition of age discrimination. It can be assumed that legislators included age among “other circumstances,” but age is not a “circumstance,” but one of the most important socio-demographic characteristics of a person.

A similar wording reproduces the norm prohibiting discrimination in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), where Article 136 states: “Discrimination, that is, violation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of a person and citizen depending on gender, race, nationality, language<. >is punishable by a fine in the amount of two hundred thousand rubles<. >, or imprisonment for up to two years." That is, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation also does not directly indicate age as a basis for punishment for discrimination.

The question arises why age as a basis for prohibiting discrimination is not mentioned in basic Russian laws: is this an accidental omission of legislators or a lack of understanding of the social importance of this problem?

Unlike the Constitution and the Criminal Code, Article 3 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (LC RF) “Prohibition of discrimination in the sphere of labor” mentions age in the list of grounds for prohibiting discrimination.

However, it is in the sphere of labor and employment that issues of age discrimination are most acute. Smirnova T.V. in his doctoral dissertation, he draws attention to the absence of the very concept of “older workers” in Russian labor and employment legislation, although the law contains the concept of “young workers.” According to the author, this excludes the possibility of raising the issue of special regulation of employment of representatives of the third age.

“There are virtually no areas in social programs that promote employment for this category of citizens; the issues of job quotas for people in older age groups remain unresolved.”

While recognizing the prohibition of age discrimination, current labor legislation at the same time often limits government support for older citizens in the field of employment. So, for example, according to Article 59 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a fixed-term employment contract is predominantly concluded with old-age pensioners entering work, which, compared to an open-ended employment contract, has certain negative consequences that limit the labor rights and guarantees of the employee. And although, in accordance with Part 2 of Article 59 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a fixed-term contract can be concluded only by agreement between the employee and the employer, the very identification in the law of the category of “age pensioners” as persons with whom a fixed-term contract can be concluded provokes the employer to limit labor rights older workers when hiring. It is quite obvious that such “consent” can easily be imposed on a retired employee interested in getting a job.

Another example: for old-age pensioners, the possibility of obtaining the status of unemployed and, accordingly, unemployment benefits is excluded. According to Art. 35 of the Law “On Employment in the Russian Federation”, a person is deregistered as unemployed and the payment of unemployment benefits is stopped as soon as he is assigned an old-age pension, including if this is an early assignment of an old-age labor pension (i.e. part of the old-age labor pension). Such a person finds himself in a situation where he has neither a job, nor benefits, and a meager pension.

In addition, until recently, older workers looking for work did not have the opportunity to receive vocational training or retraining at the expense of the employment service, since this service was free only for those with official unemployed status.

However, with the adoption in July 2013 of amendments to the law “On Employment” and the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO), the situation with discrimination against pensioners in the field of labor and employment should change for the better.

In accordance with these changes, firstly, the subjects of the federation (employment powers have been transferred to the subjects of the federation) are given the right to organize free retraining and vocational training for citizens of retirement age. Thus, for people of retirement age who want to continue working, discriminatory restrictions on free vocational training, which until this year (2013) were in the law “On Employment,” will be lifted.

Secondly, the law provides for a ban on advertisements by employers that limit the age of applicants for vacancies. The Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) provides for appropriate economic sanctions (fines) for the publication of such information in relation to employers (both individuals and organizations). In addition, the Ministry of Labor plans to continue supporting programs in the regions related to the critical situation in the labor market. These programs include the expansion of mentoring as a form of transfer of knowledge and experience from older workers to younger workers, which can increase the number of jobs for the older generation.

These measures, of course, will not completely solve the problem of employment of workers of the third age, but, of course, should help reduce discrimination against people of pre-retirement and retirement age in the labor market, as well as the awareness that these categories of workers represent, in the words of the Minister of Labor, “first All in all, normal labor potential.”

Even in cases where the labor legislation enshrines a detailed provision prohibiting discrimination (Articles 2, 3, 64 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation), employers everywhere violate this law. This is evidenced by the Reports of the Commissioners for Human Rights. For example, in 2005, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Sverdlovsk Region prepared a special report “On violations of the constitutional rights of citizens based on gender and age in the world of work,” in which she stated a violation of the principles of equal opportunities for citizens in the world of work. According to the Commissioner, “discrimination based on gender and age exceeds all reasonable limits and is especially evident at the stage of concluding an employment contract and during the selection of personnel.”

Positive developments and international experience in combating age discrimination

However, the situation with the attitude towards the resource potential of the older generation and the problems of age discrimination in the labor market in Russia is changing for the better literally before our eyes. In March 2012, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the “Set of measures aimed at increasing the employment of citizens of pre-retirement and retirement age for 2012-2013” ​​(hereinafter referred to as the Set of Measures).

In December 2012, Prime Minister D.A. Medvedev held a meeting on improving the quality of life of older people, at which, for the first time, the problems of employing older people and combating age discrimination in the Russian labor market were discussed at a high government level.

Prohibitions on gender and age restrictions when publishing job advertisements are a long-accepted international practice, so the signing of such a law is a step towards global labor law practice.

International experience in countering age discrimination and examples of positive legislative initiatives aimed at social and labor integration (and not exclusion, as in our case) of older people is valuable because it allows us not to “reinvent the wheel”, but to see ways to solve those problems that are relevant to Russian legislation and society.

International legal norms on protection against age discrimination contain standards of the UN, ILO, and EU. There are also positive examples in the legislation of individual countries. For example, countries such as Japan and South Korea with an innovation-oriented economy (and not a resource-based one, as in Russia) realized the important role of the older generation in the labor sphere and developed laws that stimulate the employment of representatives of older age groups.

The Japanese Law on Stabilizing the Employment of Persons Belonging to the Elderly Age Group and the Korean Law on Promoting the Employment of the Elderly Age Group consider the employment of the elderly as one of the priority areas of labor and employment policy.

In South Korea, to implement such a social and labor policy, a system has been developed to provide government benefits and subsidies to those employers who hire older workers, as well as a system of financial assistance to firms to improve the working conditions of such workers. Korean employers receiving benefits and subsidies are required to submit reports to the executive authorities on compliance with the law.

In Germany, in 2010, a federal court ruled that any mention of age in a list of requirements for potential employees constitutes discrimination.

The above examples indicate that currently, the problems of employment of older people are becoming relevant in all developed countries, and the ways to solve them in these countries show the directions in which Russian labor legislation can be improved.

Solving any problem begins with its awareness and analysis, which allows you to outline a course of action. Discussing issues of discrimination, the Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in the report “Equality at work - the call of the times” (2003) noted that “discrimination in the world of work will not disappear on its own and the market itself will not take care of its elimination; Eliminating discrimination requires systematic, focused and consistent efforts and political action by all stakeholders."

These words can fully be attributed to any type of discrimination, including on the basis of age. Therefore, for successful progress towards eliminating age discrimination, it is required to treat it as a serious social problem, which must be solved both at the state level and at the level of regions and individual enterprises and organizations. The government meeting on improving the quality of life of older people (2012), as well as the subsequent improvement of Russian legislation (2013), can be considered the first steps towards changing the attitude of the Russian authorities and society to this range of problems. However, in order for the older generation to be a resource for modernization, Russia needs not only to improve legislation, but also to have positive action programs aimed at creating conditions for a more complete inclusion of older people in the processes of economic modernization.

It is precisely this orientation that distinguishes modern anti-discrimination legislation, which is characterized by the consolidation of not only negative obligations (prohibition of discrimination), but also positive obligations to take certain actions in order to ensure equality and eradicate discrimination.

The development of international law proves that a general prohibition of discrimination cannot be implemented unless it is supported by special regulatory mechanisms.

Accordingly, according to experts, at a minimum, standards are required that detail the prohibition of discrimination, judicial and administrative procedures that actually enable victims of discrimination to protect themselves and receive compensation, as well as special institutions that can support victims of discrimination in a dispute with the alleged perpetrator of harm. In addition, anti-discrimination law may provide for measures aimed at preventing discrimination.

If we want to modernize the Russian economy and society, then we cannot avoid the need to modernize our legislation. The transition to anti-discrimination laws will be the next (after the already partially undertaken adjustment of labor and employment laws) stage in eliminating discriminatory barriers to the fuller use of the social and labor potential of the older generation.

After bringing Russian legislation closer to modern international standards, the next step should be the development of positive action programs aimed at integrating the older generation into the country's modernization processes.

Mentoring expansion programs implemented by the Ministry of Labor in the regions and comprehensive active aging programs developed by the Ministry of Health, which were discussed at the December (2012) meeting at a high government level, are good examples of starting work in this direction. It is also necessary to create and implement other effective programs for the labor integration of older people, and to give existing positive action programs scale, social significance and effectiveness.

I would like to end the article with the words of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, with which he closed the work of the 2nd World Assembly on Population Aging in Madrid: “We will all grow old someday, if we are given such a privilege. So let’s see older people not as living apart from us, but as ourselves in the future.”

Zoya Aleksandrovna Khotkina - Institute of Socio-Economic Problems of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Laboratory of Gender Problems.
Transcript of the speech of the Minister of Labor Maxim Topilin at the extended meeting of the final Board of the Ministry of Labor of Russia, April 12, 2013 [Electronic resource]. - Access mode.

Ageism (from the English age) is the infringement of the rights of older people and disrespectful treatment of them, similar to what is well known to victims of racism, homophobia and sexism. Psychologists are confident that age discrimination can be identified as an independent type of aggression. The Huffington Post cites the characteristics of ageism.

The devil is in the details, the publication reminds: in everyday life, any discrimination most often manifests itself not in direct insults, but in acts of so-called microaggressions. For example, to offend a person with dark skin, it is enough to admire his Afro hairstyle too zealously, and an Asian colleague can be upset by asking where he “even comes from.”

Microaggressions affect older people in the same way: they reduce self-esteem, cause stress and, most importantly, prevent them from realizing themselves. Here are some examples of such actions.

"Young, ambitious team..."

This is how many job descriptions begin. Some employers provide final clarity by specifying the desired age of the successful candidate: for example, “25-35 years old” or simply “recent graduate.” The implication is that older people are not welcome for interviews. In this case, age discrimination is usually explained by the fact that older workers have higher salary expectations, or “it is difficult for them to fit into a young team,” or “they do not understand all aspects of the digital era.”

This is about as legal as indicating in the job description that “strictly only Slavs” or “representatives of normal sexual orientation” are needed.

After all, age diversity on a team is beneficial and forward-thinking. For example, American experts have already calculated that by 2020, 35 percent of the country's population will be over 50 years old. Who can better understand the huge target audience - a 25-year-old or a 50-year-old employee? This applies to many industries that produce goods and services.

Photo: Jordi Boixareu / Zuma / Global Look

The fight against ageism is most active in the fashion industry. In recent years, fashion brands, designers and glossy magazines have been growing interest in gray-haired models that can serve as inspiration for a young audience and properly interest the older, but very solvent part of consumers.

These funny pensioners

Calling photos and videos of old people on social networks “charming” and “cute”? Many people practice this, and the corresponding web materials are in great demand: by searching Youtube for the query “adorable grandparents”, you can find more than 8.4 thousand videos. The trouble is that pensioners are not kittens or puppies: psychologists believe that for an elderly person hearing epithets like “darling” addressed to them is not at all flattering. On the contrary, it makes you feel infantile and helpless.

jokes about sex

Jokes about Viagra, fading potency, menopause, menopause and sexual relations (or lack thereof) in older people are humor of a very low level.

Older people really do have sex, and how exactly - those who are curious will be able to find out from personal experience in a couple of decades.

Old man and smartphone

Those who are younger like to good-naturedly make fun of the technical helplessness of their grandparents, for many of whom the Internet, tablets and smartphones are a dark forest. But here it would be useful to remember who taught the current creators of gadgets and websites at universities. The problem is not that older people are unable to understand innovations, but that they are a little slow to keep up with them - the digital world is changing too quickly.

Publishing a clumsy text message from a grandmother or an elderly mother on social networks for the amusement of subscribers is bad manners. The same can be said about advertising that makes fun of older people who are on friendly terms with high technology. For example, the American insurance company Esurance released promotional video with an elderly woman who likes to “post” her vacation photos on the wall of her own home instead of on her Facebook page. Many people heard condescending notes and disrespect in this advertisement, as in, for example, video, advertising BMW's i3 electric car.

Finally, portraying older people as tech illiterate is simply unfair - a myth that has long been dispelled by surveys and research. For example, Pew Research experts found that in the United States, about 60 percent of people over 65 use the Internet. At the beginning of 2014, only 18 percent of them owned smartphones, and a year later - already 27 percent.

The Huffington Post recalls that the average age of a Facebook user is 40.5 years, and the average age of employees of this corporation is 28. Why? There is still the same belief that young people are better at understanding the Internet and digital “things.”

Talk to me, grandson

A favorite trick for grandchildren is to talk to their oldest relatives as if they were small children. Not all older people are hard of hearing, so there is no need to increase the volume or slow down the rate of speech when meeting them. According to the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, young adults react differently when asked for directions from a 21-year-old passerby than from a 65-year-old. In the second case, they answer louder and slower. Psychologists call this speech patronizing. And who would like a condescending attitude?

Such discrimination can be encountered even in the holy of holies of all grandparents - the clinic. Doctors, seeing that an elderly patient has been brought to an appointment by a young relative, often prefer to talk with the latter, ignoring the elderly patient as if he were a child. It’s not difficult to imagine the patient’s feelings - who, at 75 years old, wants to feel like an overgrown child for whom adults decide everything?

We are humans and we are persons ‼️. #stop #no #dont #racism #racismo #ableism #ageism #homophobia #fatphobia #transphobia #hatefullness

Instagram users, who are known to include many teenagers and young adults, actively use the hashtag #ageism. They, not older people, equate ageism with racism and homophobia.

Specifics of discrimination based on age

Discrimination and its forms are firmly entrenched in many areas of human life. Previously, we encountered this concept within the framework of racial and national intolerance, but now it has grown to include such aspects as gender and age.

Note 1

The official name for age discrimination is ageism.

This type of discrimination is often not even realized and is not perceived as a serious threat to society, which affects not only its structure, but also the relations between social categories. The power of this form of discrimination cannot be assessed due to its hidden nature. Ageism asserts the superiority of one age group over others. Often, in almost every area of ​​a person’s life, preference is given to young people, believing that it is impossible to count on an older person, because he has already “outlived his usefulness.”

But that's not true. A prejudiced attitude towards old people and the aging process is based on the stereotype that it is difficult to train an elderly person and adapt his work capabilities to new technologically advanced processes. At the same time, their previous experience is not taken into account at all. We often forget that everything we have in the modern world is the result of the long and hard work of older generations. In addition, there are a lot of mechanisms that allow an older person to not be inferior in capabilities to the younger generation (sports, self-education, advanced training, forms of work after retirement, including the development of one’s creative abilities and adaptation to new technical devices).

Note 2

But it is worth noting the bidirectionality of discrimination based on the age factor, because not only the younger generation is skeptical of representatives of the older generation - older people are also suspicious of young people.

We may notice that we have conflicts not only with our grandparents: even our parents often consider us insufficiently educated and adjusted in comparison with them. There are also manifestations of discrimination in this: mistrust on the part of elders, taking into account the specifics and characteristics of the development of young people - boys and girls - in the modern world. Thus, another problem that is clearly expressed in ageism is the problem of “fathers and sons.”

Components of ageism

Ageism is a rather multifaceted concept, and researchers explain it from the point of view of psychology, pedagogy, sociology, and even with the help of a socio-philosophical direction. Considering the fairly large amount of material that exists on ageism, from a practical point of view this problem has not been fully studied, and some questions remain. Nevertheless, the component part of this concept has been well developed. Thus, the components of age discrimination are the following:

1. Prejudice towards old people, old age and the aging process;
2. Practices that discriminate against older people (both directly and indirectly);
3. Institutional practices that preserve and transmit stereotypes about older people and old age.

Some people treat older people with understanding, some with sympathy, and some feel irritated. Of course, until we experience this age ourselves, we will never understand what an older person really experiences. But at the same time, we have developed stereotypes regarding old age and the aging process.

Today, young people remain a priority, especially when it comes to work. Almost all employers indicate the candidate’s age as “up to 35 years”. It is believed that at an older age it is more difficult for a person to perceive new information and conduct his activities, which is completely disadvantageous for the employer. That is why older people are not held in high esteem. But we should not forget that older people have their own set of characteristics, and they also have extensive training and work experience behind them. They may not be as technically advanced, but they can boast of an existing base of personal professional experience that most young people do not have.

Some social institutions unintentionally discriminate against older people. A good example is healthcare. Most often, pensioners and older people do not receive proper treatment and care due to a certain disease (including cancer). Specialists act on the principle “the young need help, because the old person has already outlived his usefulness.” This is a very cruel type of discrimination, since, in essence, a person is deprived of the chance to increase his life expectancy, since the doctor explains to him that “illness is due to old age.”

Prevention and rehabilitation of older people is also given a rather minor role: it is believed that for the older generation this is no longer so important, and money can be spent on developing technologies for use with young people. By default, a young person is considered more valuable because he has much more to give to society than an old man.

In everyday life, we also use stereotypes that place age characteristics in the center of attention. One of the clearest proofs of this are the so-called “anti-aging” products, including a large assortment of special cosmetics that promise to prolong youth in appearance. Essentially, advertisers have convinced us that if we do not maintain a youthful appearance and internal state, then we are considered “abnormal” and our behavior is deviant.

Thus, today it is common to hide our age, to dress in accordance with fashion, and not in a way that would suit us. The idea of ​​“young” as something better, and “old” as something that inevitably brings us closer to death, has taken root in our value system, and continues to be broadcast with enviable tenacity.