They aren't being 'left out'. Many are choosing to stay home because their husband or partner is one of the 76% of men who is still working and bringing in the majority of the income money. They don't necessarily need to work long hours.

It says a lot about our society, and sad commentary, that we undervalue mature age wisdom and experience, as much as we do.
Mature age and disabled workers overvalue their jobs, take far fewer sickies, and are generally more productive, even though they seem to burn up less sweat, getting it done.
Mature managers, are often more patient, understand from hard won experience, exactly what work effort and time is required to complete any task; take far fewer silly risks, and encounter bankruptcy less often.
A few rouge employers, will never ever be satisfied, and generally go through a lot of staff, before their rep spreads; and less and less turn up for job interviews, and then only stay, until something better turns up!
And there are some very physical occupations, although, they seem to be gradually dissappearing.
i.e.,most shearers are retired by the time they're 45, with crippling back injuries.
As a former businessman, I've been an employer/contractor, and my staff were always paid around 10% above the award, or a 15% commission, whichever was the greater, or their preferred choice.
Good staff are the very lifeblood of any business, and I was determined to keep mine.
Union reps were allowed onsite during employee lunch breaks. But were usually sent packing by employees, who knew which side of the bread had butter on.
Sure older workers can no longer run the three minute mile, but experience usually makes them superior workers, in comparison to young people, particularly those still learning the ropes.
[I never asked others to do what I couldn't. And if you and your senior employee agree on everything, then one of you is redundant!]
And yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but they do take longer to learn!
It's just a case of age and old brains not quite as plastic as those of young people?
Can't change biological facts, so get used to it.
At the end of the day, everyone gets old, and what goes around comes around!
Rhrosty.

There is an assumption by some of your respondents that mature age women have men to support them. For many of us this is not so and we have been supporting ourselves for many years. I would love to retire but I cannot see that happening anytime soon as I do not have enough superannuation.

That said, I think there is a great deal of discrimination against older people both male and female in the work place. Talking to my friends about this issue, I find that many feel left out or not wanted or disregarded by younger people at work. Some have said they have people telling them they are a block to progress and that they are too old to change etc etc. Not nice at all

Ageism is ageism. It is not just another opportunity to divert Gillard's very slim and token grant to employ more older workers into the already over-funded womens and diversity troughs.

The government is one of the very worst offenders in ageism as PM Julia Gillard might see if she cared enough to ask for an age breakdown of her own office, her department and the federal public service.

The federal bureaucracy has made older workers and especially older 'white' male workers pay with their jobs for its affirmative action and diversity imperatives.

A very manipulative article.

Instead of saying women are better educated than men but work less hours, for fewer years with more breaks, take more sick leave, and then retire earlier to live 6 YEARS LONGER than men (i.e. women have a bloody good life), she tries to portray women as victims.

I mean seriously. And this person is (I'm assuming) a government funded CEO?

Can we have our money back?

Come on Rhrosty, where do you get this stuff.

My most outstanding experience of disabled "workers" was at Logan hospital, during some rebuilding.

I often had to see the engineer regarding our water/energy saving equipment being installed. He was having many problems, so was often late for our appointments, which left me sitting in reception waiting for him.

At this time the government had a big push on employing "disadvantaged" people. For some time they had 2 in wheelchairs in reception. They seemed very happy perambulating about.

Of course they should have been, they never ever did anything useful. The only effect on the running of the office I could detect was when they asked an able bodied worker to stop what they were doing, & go get our disadvantaged a cup of tea.

This went on for about a year, then they suddenly disappeared. Someone in authority must have noticed the harm they were doing the disabled cause, by flaunting their uselessness in such a public place. Perhaps people complained.

I have no doubt these drones are still on the public service payroll, just in a less obvious area. At least that is one less obvious reason to be annoyed when walking into that hospital.