In our work
We want everyone to have a good later life and so our work focuses particularly on how we can reduce the significant inequalities in people’s experience of older age. This includes looking at what needs to happen to improve outcomes for marginalised people and communities.
How we talk about inequality, identities and experiences
We take both a ‘life course’ and ‘intersectional’ approach to understanding inequalities in ageing. This means we look at how disadvantage and inequality accumulates through someone’s lifetime (a ‘life course’ approach), and we also consider how different forms of discrimination, such as racism, disablism and sexism, can combine with ageism to create new forms of disadvantage in later life (an ‘intersectional’ approach).
We recognise that inequalities are not driven by individual personal characteristics or identities – inequalities are avoidable and created by society. They are a result of exclusion and discrimination. We believe it is important to highlight these drivers of inequality, in order to inform more just and effective systems, policies and practice.
We know that inequality extends beyond the nine ‘protected characteristics’ under Equality Law. We also look at how factors such as socio-economic status, deprivation and geography create unequal outcomes in older age. When it comes to talking about different people’s identities and experiences, language matters. Language can shape systems and influence biases – it can challenge or reinforce them.
We also know language is never perfect, always evolving, and needs to be continually revised. We have developed a series of style guides which explain how we talk about race, sexual orientation and disability. We are always open to feedback and conversation about these.
