According to Peterborough photographer Heather Doughty, women’s stories are “undervalued.” That’s why she’ll never stop sharing them.
Doughty is seeking participants for her next project, titled “Stories of Cultural Ageism Experienced by Women in Canada.” Funded in part by the Ontario Arts Council and Government of Ontario, the project aims to raise awareness of the cultural phenomenon where women become increasingly invisible or marginalized as they age.
It will include photographs, audio recordings, and panels of personal experiences and discussions around ageism experienced by women 55 years of age and older.
“When we share our stories — when somebody’s brave and steps up and says ‘This is happening to me, this is my story’ — there are other women thinking, ‘I am not alone in that, I can breathe, I can take one step,'” Doughty says.
“Maybe it’s just sharing their story with their best friend or somebody else, but it’s taking that tiny little step, and those tiny little steps all come together and make change happen and that’s the biggest goal.”
Doughty is not new to using her artwork to change the narrative around how women are seen. Her projects have celebrated “mom bods,” explored the stigma around the menstrual cycle, retold the stories of “villainous” women in history and media, and otherwise challenged the way women — and their bodies — are seen in contemporary society.
Her latest work-in-progress jumps off from a 2024 exhibit titled “The Ghost in the Room,” sponsored by DJC Modern Apparel, which showed off female beauty in aging through a series of portraits of women aged 40 to over 80.
“There’s so few mature women represented in media, and if they are, they tend to be little old ladies, or grumpy, or it’s not complimentary,” Doughty says. “But older women are stunning, beautiful, so The Ghost in the Room presented older women in a new light.”
“The whole project resonated so much with so many people. I had people telling me ‘This has happened to me’ and I thought there’s more to explore here. As lovely as The Ghost in the Room was, I think it actually has legs and can maybe raise awareness, and try to affect some change, even locally.”
To get her new project rolling, Doughty put out a public survey, open to anybody, inviting them to share their stories and insights around how they feel about aging and if they’ve experienced ageism themselves.
Roughly 93 per cent of respondents believe that ageism occurs for women over the age of 55, while 95.7 per cent suggested that society judges older women differently from older men.
“I think that comes down in some ways to value. There’s still the wage gap, there are still all those other inherent inequalities,” Doughty says. “A guy who’s 75 or 65 is thought to have all this experience — he can mentor and he’s this grandfather that can do all this. I think the pressure that’s already there (for women) keeps building more and more and more. Whereas for older men, it’s almost like they win the race or, as they get older and they get grey, they’ve won some award.”
In her survey, Doughty also asked participants to mark some of the areas where they think women over the age of 55 experience the most ageism.
The top three included the workplace, in healthcare, and in media. As part of the project, Doughty will be videotaping small panels in her studio of people talking about their own experiences of ageism in those categories.
“I’m looking forward to the panel discussions,” she says. “If there is somebody who doesn’t believe it (ageism) exists, or has a different viewpoint, it’s going to be very interesting to hear that.”
Doughty is also seeking participation from female models over the age of 55 to join her in the studio to get their hair and make-up done and have portraits done in a similar style to those in “The Ghost in the Room.” A small compensation fee will be provided.
“Most of them were laughing,” Doughty recalls of the models who participated in the 2024 shoot. “They were saying it was a common thread that when women go to get their photos taken, it’s always ‘Can you make me look 20 years younger?’, and they said it was so cool and felt so good to be celebrating who they are.”
“They were not feeling any pressure to look younger. They were celebrating who they were right then and there, and that was really powerful and wonderful.”
Another component of the project will include audio recordings of women speaking about their experiences and how they have been impacted by ageism.
The recordings will be completely anonymous, either shared under a pseudonym or shared and re-recorded by someone else.
Doughty is aiming for the exhibit to be live for International Women’s Day on March 8, 2027, and she hopes it will inspire conversation and change — especially given the recent worldwide regression in women’s rights after decades of moving towards equality.
“Now that I have granddaughters, I actually have to be louder so that they still have the same basic rights that I have currently,” Doughty says.
“If we don’t share these stories, we run the risk — in the way the world is going today — of losing where we’ve come from. That’s our biggest goal right now in today’s world: keeping our voices loud and strong and saying ‘We’re still here, we are not perfect, and we are not expected to be perfect.'”
To be a participant in any of the segments, fill out the form at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjRyBwRtVcnysxdlgdMcPcruW1CeyWWbNSuNl3ekPbQwCiFw/viewform.
