Jayne Dowle: On the screen and in the workplace, older women need to stay centre stage

Whatever you think of his politics, you can’t argue with his reasoning. “I’m married to a charming and beautiful 66-year-old, and I would be delighted if she was the face of anything on television,” he says.

Good for him. He is not afraid to say it. No matter how many high-profile women attempt to tackle the status quo – like the recent case of Countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly, 54, who won her employment tribunal against the BBC on the grounds of ageism and victimisation – it still means a lot more if a man comes out with it.

Shouldn’t be like that, I know. And shouldn’t be like that in 2011 when we were all supposed to have been created equal decades ago. And it especially shouldn’t be like that because we women are facing the fact that we will have to work well into our sixties before we can claim any kind of pension.

We can’t just be written off the moment we hit our late forties. We might have another 20 years to slog it out in the workplace, and it’s not going to be pleasant – for anyone – if we’re disregarded and discontented.

So for all these reasons and more, it is time to redefine what we mean when we put “old” and “woman” in the same sentence.

I know, I know. Men get discriminated against too. But as actress Caroline Quentin pointed out earlier this year she is, at 50, experiencing a chronic case of “invisible woman syndrome”. She is finding offers of television work dropping off, while male counterparts such as James Nesbitt and Stephen Tompkinson merrily continue to carry off lead roles.

Just because we’ve got the splendid Helen Mirren, now 66, we shouldn’t assume that the “older women on TV” box has been ticked. No-one would question her achievements, but it’s going to take more than one of her to change hearts and minds.

If you want proof that other older women can be totally compelling though, look no further than Emmy-Award-winning Dame Maggie Smith on ITV1’s Downton Abbey. At almost 77, she makes a virtue of her venerable age, no excuses, no hiding the wrinkles. We need more like her.

I know we shouldn’t believe everything we see on television, but as it is still the mirror by which we examine ourselves, we can’t afford to ignore it. It is also the mirror by which others see us.

If children and young people never see older women doing anything meaningful, then unless told otherwise, they will assume that older women, well, never do anything meaningful.

This has some serious implications, especially for the women who will now continue teaching in schools well into their sixties.

For all our advances and sophistications, and notable women making a name for themselves, we live in a man’s world, dominated by male politicians, male CEOs and male bankers messing up the global economy. Don’t under-estimate the impact of this. As my five-year-old daughter said to me the other day: “Ladies can never be Prime Minister, can they?”

Well, ladies can be Prime Minister, I told her. And ladies can do pretty much anything they like if they set their mind to it. It is why we should listen to Fern Britton, herself a mature television presenter of 54, who recently urged women to stop being so competitive with themselves.

She’s right. In my experience, more often than not it is women who judge other women most harshly. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that random bitchy comments about a newsreader’s trendy hairstyle, or a blouse being just that little bit low-cut and try-hard, rapidly accelerate into the perception that she might be falling out of favour with viewers.

Before the poor woman knows it, she’s off prime-time and parked in the “only resuscitate in mid-afternoon slots and dire emergencies” holding bay.

Former newsreader Anna Ford, 68, left the BBC five years ago, because she couldn’t face being “shovelled off into News 24 to the sort of graveyard shift”. So you can see why, when the contract of 72-year-old Question Time presenter David Dimbleby, was renewed, she branded him ”a charming dinosaur”.

I know there are plenty who roll their eyes when these women-of-a-certain-age start spouting off, but we shouldn’t dismiss their views. Ms Britton, with her butterfly tattoo and the gastric band she can’t help but mention, might be in-your-face, but she challenges how we expect a middle-aged woman to behave by being like this.

We all need to shake up our perceptions, and we don’t have to appear on Loose Women talking about sex to prove it. I live in hope that by the time I reach my sixties, no-one will think to even wonder how old I am.

I know, however much I spend on skincare, that this is something of a vain ambition, and in more ways than one. But, if nothing else, I only pray that I have not become totally invisible.