Last year, a full 35 percent the United States population was 50 years old or older. And when it comes to jobs, crossing that Five-O mark brings some very unwelcome challenges. In 2018, a survey by the AARP found that nearly one in four workers 45 or older have been subjected to negative comments about their age, and 3 in 5 workers have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace.

Carole Cox, a professor at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, has spent her career studying gerontology and social policy. Ageism remains the last form of discrimination that’s widely accepted in our culture, she says, and it’s critical that we overcome it if we want to grow and thrive as a society.