There is an old cultural cliché about aging: gray hair makes a man look distinguished, while a woman with the same gray hair simply looks older.
It’s an oversimplification, of course. But it reflects a gender double standard that researchers have studied for decades.
Men have traditionally been afforded more freedom to visibly age. Lines around the eyes could suggest experience. Gray temples could communicate authority. A mature face might even reinforce the image of someone who had spent decades building expertise. Women, meanwhile, have often faced greater pressure to maintain a youthful appearance while simultaneously being expected to project the experience necessary for senior leadership.
But something interesting may be happening to that traditional divide. Professional life has become dramatically more visual. LinkedIn headshots, Zoom meetings, company websites, webinars, podcasts and social media have put faces at the center of professional identity in ways that weren’t commonplace 15 or 20 years ago. And while women still face significant appearance pressures, some professional men are becoming more conscious of how aging affects their own image. The Business Face, it seems, may be becoming less exclusively female territory.
The Double Standard of Aging Isn’t Imaginary
Researchers have been examining gender differences in perceptions of aging for decades.
A 1986 study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found evidence supporting what researchers called a “double standard of aging.” Both male and female subjects were perceived as becoming less attractive with age, but the decline was greater for women. Women’s perceived femininity also declined with age, while men’s perceived masculinity did not.
More recent research suggests the story is considerably more complicated.
A nationally representative study of 1,600 people examined attitudes toward appearance through the combined lenses of age, gender and social class. Researchers found that women were more likely than men to believe aging diminished their appearance, placed greater importance on appearance and began worrying about looking old at younger ages.
But there was another finding that is particularly relevant to the Business Face conversation.
Among upper-middle-class, middle-aged participants, men considered appearance approximately as important as women in similar demographic groups. Researchers suggested this could indicate that professional and socioeconomic environments expose both men and women to increasingly restrictive expectations surrounding aging and appearance.
In other words, the traditional gender gap may not be disappearing. Men may simply be entering the conversation.
Gray Hair Can Still Tell Two Different Stories
There is a reason the “distinguished older man” stereotype has endured. Age can communicate qualities that are valuable in business: experience, stability, authority and institutional knowledge. A 55-year-old CEO isn’t necessarily trying to look 35. In fact, looking significantly younger could undermine the maturity he wants to convey. That creates an interesting balancing act for professional men.
Dr. Douglas Steinbrech, a board-certified plastic surgeon who has focused extensively on male aesthetics, has observed changing attitudes among male patients throughout his career. Steinbrech is the author of Male Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, a medical reference devoted to male aesthetic procedures, and currently serves as Treasurer/Secretary of The Aesthetic Society.
“Men aren’t necessarily trying to hide their age. What has changed is how intentional they’ve become about aging. They want to preserve the maturity and authority they’ve earned professionally while having more control over how they present themselves as they get older.” Dr. Steinbrech stated.
That distinction matters. For many professional men, the goal isn’t necessarily youth. It’s maintaining the visual cues of experience without feeling that other aspects of their appearance communicate fatigue, stress or disengagement.
Ageism Doesn’t Affect Everyone Equally
Any discussion about men, women and aging at work needs an important caveat: appearance pressure and actual workplace discrimination aren’t the same thing. And evidence suggests older women can face particularly significant barriers.
One of the largest U.S. field experiments on age discrimination sent more than 40,000 fictitious job applications to employers. Researchers found robust evidence of hiring discrimination against older women, particularly those approaching retirement age, but considerably less evidence of age discrimination against older men in the jobs studied.
That doesn’t establish that older men never experience age discrimination.
Other research has documented broader age-related hiring penalties. A Swedish field experiment involving more than 6,000 fictitious résumés found callback rates began falling substantially for applicants in their 40s and became very low for workers approaching retirement age. The researchers identified stereotypes surrounding older workers’ ability to learn new tasks, flexibility and ambition as potentially important factors.
The research therefore cautions against making broad claims that all older workers, all older men and women experience ageism in precisely the same way. Gender matters, occupation matters, age matters. And appearance can intersect with all three.
Has Digital Business Culture Changed the Equation?
There’s another factor earlier generations of executives didn’t have to navigate: constant digital visibility.
A professional’s appearance was once largely experienced in person. You walked into a conference room, attended a networking event or met with a client. Today, someone’s face can precede him into the room.
A LinkedIn photograph appears beside professional credentials. Executives are featured on company websites. Video meetings place faces into individual boxes on a screen. Podcasts increasingly have video components. Social media has turned entrepreneurs and executives into public-facing representatives of their companies.
That visibility may help explain why some men are becoming more aware of their own Business Face. Historically, a man might have looked in the mirror before leaving for work and now he can spend hours looking at himself while he’s actually working.
“Professional men are more visually exposed than they were a generation ago. Their image is on LinkedIn, company websites, video meetings and social media, and that visibility has made many men more conscious of how they present themselves as they age. Appearance is becoming part of the professional-image conversation for men in a way it traditionally has been for women.” Dr. Steinbrech stated.
The shift doesn’t mean men suddenly face the same appearance expectations women have navigated for generations. But, it may mean men are encountering a version of those pressures more frequently.
Is Equality Really Everyone Feeling More Pressure?
There’s an uncomfortable question underneath all of this. If professional men are becoming more concerned about looking older, is that progress? Not necessarily. Equality shouldn’t mean that men finally experience the same pressure women have long faced to appear perpetually youthful. Nor should looking younger become another unofficial qualification for professional relevance.
Research on age discrimination already demonstrates the danger of stereotypes surrounding older workers. Language associated with age-related stereotypes in job advertisements has even been linked with discriminatory hiring patterns.
If someone begins to believe that wrinkles, gray hair or another visible sign of aging could make colleagues question his energy or adaptability, the problem isn’t necessarily his face.
It may be the assumptions attached to it. That distinction is particularly important when discussing aesthetic treatment.
“I don’t believe there’s one way a successful professional is supposed to look as he gets older. If a man chooses aesthetic treatment, it should be because it reflects his own goals—not because he feels he has to look younger to remain relevant in his career.” Dr. Steinbrech noted.
The Business Face May Be Changing for Everyone
Men and women don’t experience aging identically, and the research doesn’t support pretending otherwise.
Women have historically faced stronger cultural pressures surrounding youth and appearance, and some employment research has found particularly pronounced age discrimination against older women. At the same time, the idea that men can simply age without thinking about appearance may be becoming less universally true, particularly among professional and upper-middle-class men.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re moving toward a world in which men and women face identical appearance standards. Something subtler may be happening. As professional identity becomes more visual, more people are becoming conscious of the image they project alongside their experience, credentials and accomplishments.
That’s where Business Face becomes a cultural story rather than simply an aesthetic one. Aging itself hasn’t changed. A 55-year-old face is still a 55-year-old face. What may be changing is how often that face is photographed, recorded, displayed, scrutinized and viewed by its owner.
Perhaps the goal shouldn’t be figuring out whether men or women “age better” in business. A better question is whether we can create workplaces where looking experienced is allowed to mean exactly what it should: That you’ve gained experience.
