“Best Before”: On Women, Ageism, and Mental Health

Abstract

Introduction: Our world has changed over the last decades, and one of the dramatic changes has been the increase in human life expectancy. Due to important life-saving breakthroughs, the current life expectancy for the world in 2024 is 73.33 years; and female global life expectancy is 76.0 years. This trend manifests one of the greatest achievements of human society, which, however, reveals issues that humanity has yet to address. One of them is the place and role of women over 40 in modern society.

Keywords

• women over 40
• gendered ageism
• age stereotypes
• mental health
• wellbeing
• beauty standards
• youthfulness
• multiple discrimination
• inequity
• identity
• sexuality
• social exclusion
• intersectionality