I remember watching Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes when I was a kid. His voice and silly discussions remind me simultaneously of sadness regarding the end of a weekend and excitement about the start of a new school week. I could not often understand the content of 60 Minutes programming. It was the Cold War, and the end of Vietnam; there was little that made sense to my young mind regarding the complex politics of the time. But when Rooney came on, in our one television home, I could finally comprehend something that my parents were watching. His dry humor has defined me, as well as a lot of my contemporaries.
You may have heard that at 92, Rooney has announced his retirement. There is perhaps no better model of a senior getting the most from their career and showing us that adults can continue to work well and productively late into their lives.
As I thought about Rooney, however, I was wondering where the female versions of him are. It turns out that older women are working in television, though the age differences between "old" men and "older" women are striking. For example, one woman, Sylvia Kuzyk who worked as a weather forecaster in Canada, has been lauded as having a lifetime of achievement after almost 38 years in the business. It is a bit hard to find out the age of Ms. Kuzyk, but she looks pretty good (and still relatively young) to me, trimmed eyebrows and all.
I don't know of women in their 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's still working in televised news media however. Others have noticed a lack of older women journalists. There might be some hope for women in acting. An article in The New York Times describes older women working in television and movies, though the average age of those covered are those in their 40's. Of course, we do have Helen Mirren and Betty White as lovely exceptions in the acting world.
I guess progress is progress, and we women have not been in the workforce as long as men, which might partly explain why we don't see more older women on TV and especially reporting the news. Let's just hope in the next few decades we can see female versions of Andy Rooney. It would also be nice if they did not have to be botoxed into oblivion for us to be able to tolerate hearing what they have to say.
Rooney's career is a milestone for senior men. I am not sure that it is for women.
