Seen at last: Wellcome highlights older women in the workplace

The Coming of Age, a fascinating new exhibition on aspects of ageing, opened on Thursday at the Wellcome Collection in London. One striking exhibit, Uncertain Futures, is accompanied by a printed manifesto written by 100 women from Manchester aged over 50, calling for equal rights, good work, recognition of unpaid labour and the right to participate fully in decision making.

This was the result of a project by Californian social practice artist and community organiser Suzanne Lacy working from 2019-24 with researchers and the carefully curated group of women. Previously displayed in Manchester and Germany (where women over 50 face similar challenges), it has important lessons for employers and policymakers, who should take note of the needs a demographic they have long neglected.

The project revealed widespread discrimination experienced by the women, particularly at work, on grounds of age, gender and race. Many of the women found themselves pushed into voluntary work, ostensibly to get on a ladder to paid employment, only to find themselves stuck indefinitely in unpaid roles. Often this followed a period out of the workforce caring for a family member. After retiring, many of the women were surprised by the inadequacy of their pensions.

There is a growing recognition of the need to build an effective, sustainable and properly paying “care economy” – and Uncertain Futures is an important illustration of why. Two demands in the manifesto that particularly stand out are the need to identify and organise, especially at the local level, coalitions of “age friendly” employers, and for the government to conduct a serious review of the role of unpaid work in society, in order to properly value those contributions – perhaps, in part, through pension credits.

The exhibition runs until 29 November.

Photograph by Stephen Chung/Alamy