Who got that cash?

Diane Grant and her team at Liverpool John Moores University have secured £480,000 to turn the fruits of their research on ageism in the workplace into training for older women.

Three years ago, Dr Grant, a specialist in applied community studies and home economics at the university, won support from the European Social Fund to research the experiences of the over-50 age group in the workplace. She found that women were often doubly disadvantaged and were discriminated against because of both their age and their sex.

The latest grant, from the ESF and the university, will allow Dr Grant and her team to turn the findings into training programmes to help women combat ageism at work.

Dr Grant said: "The ESF wants the research to be accessible. We don't just write journal articles and give papers at academic conferences. We have a website and a newsletter, called agender , that goes to employers and the voluntary sector. I think we got this grant because we were disseminating what we found, keeping people informed of issues of gender and ageism."

The project will focus on the needs of diverse groups of women, such as those who are unemployed and those from ethnic minorities.

Dr Grant said: "This funding couldn't have come at a better time. The UK is about to launch legislation outlawing ageism in October. As the population gets older, employers will need women in their fifties and sixties to stay in their jobs for longer."

"That's not going to happen without a seismic shift in the attitudes of employers and the mindset of women themselves," she added.