My father, a professor, had me when he was 60 and raised me on his own. Luckily this has meant that I'm relatively attuned to age discrimination. Your comment about working for someone 20 years younger making you sweat makes me think of my mother. She's also a professor and her students, apparently, 'know it all.' Both her daughters also seem to think they do. I know this frustrates her in a big way. I wish younger people would have more respect for their elders, in the workplace and at home. Have you ever thought about how respecting one's elders might translate into the workplace and into social settings? And the differences in terms of 'respect' (and whatever that implies) between immigrant children and 'white' children?
I think it might play heavily into social skills.

On the complete flip side, I wish that older people at work would not tune me out simply because I'm a young woman. Sometimes recruiters want my resume to come with an older version of me. I suppose this goes with paying one's dues. But apparently my generation doesn't want to do that anymore.

Then again, I think that young women face huge inequalities in the work place whether they get paid more than men their own age or not. So it's not only age, but also gender.

So being older and a woman, I feel especially sick and sweaty for both my mother and yours.

Many folks my age (members of the dreaded "baby boomer" generation) have been change agents and have fashioned life courses for themselves that took courage and original thinking. But…it has also landed many of us in situations where we're working well below our ability and reporting to snooty bosses who aren't even slightly curious about our rich backgrounds, pioneering efforts, and large toolboxes of skills.

Not following the usual career path – which so many of us who were young teens in the late '60s – has allowed for wildly rich life experiences that would have been impossible had we followed the "lockstep" route to success.

In my case, I've had the leisure to pursue some of my talents and explore the beaches of Mexico – and have even had the luxury of building a business that I sold to a Fortune 500 company, after which I lived a lifestyle of some relative wealth for many years – but I've also discovered that many of my adventures have now led to closed doors, limited options, and lots of ageist prejudice.

Long story; don't want to bore folks. But a change in finances has led me to accept a job that pays low wages (not even a salary), with no prospects for growth due to my age, no "flex-time," an old-fashioned time clock, and is replete with the frustrations that accompany reporting to very young folks without business experience, knowledge of how to manage people/meetings/projects, or much life acumen. And I have to "suck it up" (until I find a new way to support myself and pay my bills).

I can only remind myself that I "had my fun and days of success," and tell myself that if I want "out" of this bad situation, I'll have to get up the guts to do something entrepreneurial and original once again.