Last night I posted the first message from the NYDC and here we are less than 24 hours later reading about "veteran" presenter Miriam O'Reilly suing for unfair dismissal, accusing her employers of age discrimination. Of course the press don't help the situation one bit, by using the term veteran, which immediately puts Miriam into the old people's home category even though they would argue the word means seasoned, experienced. been at it along time. Janet Jackson has been singing since she was a child, but nobody would call her a veteran. The English language is more subtle than almost any other language and therefore needs to be used more carefully than most. That's a deiscussion for another day. We'll see what happens to Miriam. We salute her courage and offer her our NYDC solidarity.
VH Founding member of NYDC
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Your timing is perfect! The credit crunch has only served to accentuate the reality out there: we are no longer invisible, as we would have been in previous generations; instead, we are ignored. There's a heavy silence if I am contacted to comment on some vinous topic (I'm a wine writer) and it means a TV appearance- the silence ensues when they ask your age. The ultimate irony is that we all fought for women's right to take any job, climb any ladder; now there's a high jump at the top! Could I recommend a website I work with (for free): www.riskcollective.com. It's there to encourage women to keep on taking risks and refusing to be discouraged.
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