Petula Dvorak, in the Washington Post of October 7th, bemoans the invisibility of older women. The older, wise woman is given as much credence as the older actress. Women of 50 or over are ignored. Economists at the University of California at Irvine, in cooperation with Tulane University, sent out 40,000 fake resumes, all of which reflected a breadth of age and experience. The resumes were sent all over the United States. The number of callbacks for older women were 47% less than for younger women, while men of all ages we treated more equally. Women at work “get talked over in meetings, interrupted and passed over for promotion, or criticised for their ambition”. Only 19% of the US Congress are women; 4% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. Some people think that at least part of Hillary’s unpopularity is down to her gender and age – no one is querying the gender or age of her adversary, even if they are horrified by his manner and character.

The statistics ignore the fact that many people opt not to be promoted or thrust into senior jobs where they have to manage people rather than remain a technical specialist. I know whereof I speak because, much as I liked and admired my own employees in my younger days, far too much time had to be spent on “personnel matters” (there! that phrase tells you a lot!). Some wise old bird commented that being in business would have been absolutely fine and fun if it were not for the people – the staff and the customers. Handling and motivating them is, to say the least, a challenge at any time and in any place. Women, being more canny than men, confine their man management to the man in the house, which is one reason they live longer.