What Gretchen Carlson’s Lawsuit Against Fox Means for Professional Women Over 50

Last month, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, Fox News Chairman and CEO, claiming he sabotaged her career after the woman repeatedly refused his sexual advances and complained about pervasive sexual harassment. While the case primarily pursues sexual harassment claims, another type of gender discrimination could be functioning under the radar. The network fired Carlson just two days after she announced her 50^th birthday on air saying, “I know, normally folks on TV wouldn’t readily admit their age, but since there’s nothing you can do about it, you might as well own it and be happy.” The dismissal meeting that followed took less than one minute.

While several female Fox News anchors, such as Martha McCallum and Greta Van Susteren, have maintained contracts with the network past age 50, this does not mean age discrimination was not a partial factor in Roger Ailes “highly personal agenda” to punish and dismiss Carlson. In Ailes’ statement released by Fox News, he counters the woman’s harassment accusations while specifically mentioning how many years Carlson worked for the network: “FOX News provided her with more on-air opportunities over her 11 year tenure than any other employer in the industry, for which she thanked me in her recent book.”

While the tone is measured, the remark still feels slightly contemptuous. The mention of her tenure seems to imply that this 11-year contract simply ran its natural course before expiring. While the official statement from Fox insists that ratings were the reason for Carlson’s dismissal, Gretchen explains in a New York Times interview that ratings were not mentioned at the time of her dismissal – only her 11-year tenure. Carlson’s former “Fox & Friends” co-hosts, Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy have so far enjoyed 19 and 20 years at Fox News and remain employed, despite sexist commentary on-air.

And just what were these “opportunities” that Ailes insists would not have been available to Carlson from any other network? Was it her demotion from the morning show to a difficult afternoon time slot with a pay decrease to accompany the heavier workload? The significant lack of “network media support and promotion provided to other Fox News hosts who had not complained about harassment?” Or the continuous objectification of her body by the network executive and Carlson’s male colleagues?

Co-host Steve Doocy repeatedly made on-air comments about Gretchen’s appearance in skirts, which she claims the network required her to wear. Roger Ailes reportedly said of another former female anchor, Catharine Crier, “I did not spend x-number of dollars on a glass desk for her to wear pant suits.”

In the context of this alleged harassment and repeated objectification by Ailes and Doocy (who is mentioned in Carlson’s lawsuit but not named as a defendant), the concept of women’s “shelf life” should not be ignored as an undercurrent in Gretchen Carlson’s dismissal. With Carlson refusing to engage in a sexual relationship with Ailes, perhaps the declaration of her fiftieth birthday was a reminder to Ailes of her diminishing value for his personal gain. Are we to believe that a man with an alleged history of harassing women, some as young as 16, and punishing those who rebuff his advances – including putting word out that a woman is “not to be hired” – coincidentally chose to dismiss Carlson immediately after this announcement?

At a network with strict rules for female presenters’ wardrobe and appearance, one Fox regular explained she got “more calls from network management about her hair, clothes, and makeup than about what she says.” In The Atlantic’s article about the “Fox Glam” style, media critic Jack Shafer notes the network habitually pairs “winsome women” with “older men.” Agreeing with Shafer, Gabrielle Sherman, a journalist who wrote an in-depth book on Roger Ailes, added that “the men are kind of frumpy older men paired with hyper-feminine women. … Oftentimes the older male hosts—Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity—in the prime time, at night, are paired with women, debating politics, and the women are generally much younger.”

With this not-so subtle preference towards younger, sexualized women at the network, do you think Roger Ailes dismissed Gretchen Carlson from Fox News partially due to on age discrimination? Share your thoughts in the comments below.