A lady never reveals her age

This past week, my Advanced Public Relations class had the joy of being visited by Alaka Williams. Ms. Williams is the Senior Vice President of Network Human Resources at Scripps Networks Interactive, based here in Knoxville. She has had many years of experience in human resources, and as such, provided us with valuable information during her visit. While in our class, she spoke to us about aspects of diversity. She also had us guess how old she was, what car she drove, what her favorite sport was, and what her favorite music is.

These questions, especially asking us what her age is, really made me think about how I approach others. I grew up believing that a woman never reveals her age, nor should I ask what her age is. Blame it on countless hours of watching I Love Lucy and the numerous lies told about the numbers representing how long she had been on this planet, or just being told not to ask a woman’s age.

Why is this? The older you get, the less desirable you are. Once you are past your prime, you aren’t any good anymore. You don’t have the energy that someone younger would have. While these are not necessarily true (with the exception of the last one, I can attest to that), in a patriarchal society, it just gives men more of a reason to push these women off to the side. What they are not understanding, or just plain ignoring, is the fact that these women have just as much experience and skill as them, if not more. Is it a fear of being replaced by them, of supposedly being emasculated? That sounds like a pretty selfish reason to me. If you really want to get the job done, you pick the best person to do it, regardless of age or gender.

This is why diversity is important. This is why, in order to progress as a society, people from all walks of life need the same opportunities. You aren’t the best at what you do because of your chromosomes. You also aren’t the best because of how old or young you are. You are the best because of the work you have done, because of your experience and ingenuity. 

And for the record, I finally worked up the courage to guess her age, and I almost hit the nail on the head.

“Nobody else can live the life you live. And even though no human being is perfect, we always have the chance to bring what’s unique about us to live in a redeeming way.” - Fred Rogers