Theoretically, both the Federal and California governments have laws in place to protect any and all employees of age discrimination. Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in 1967 which prohibits employers from discriminating against older workers. California passed FEHA, the Fair Employment and Housing Act, which also protects workers aged 40 or older from discriminatory workplace or hiring practices. However, it seems Hollywood did not get the memo, and a recent court ruling may have just made things worse.

In IMDb.com v. Becerra, 16-CV06535 (N.D. Cal., filed Nov. 10, 2016), federal Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California ruled that AB 1687, which compelled the website IMDb.com (owned by Amazon) to remove the age of an actor upon request, was unconstitutional. The judge ruled that preventing IMDb, or any site, from putting information out because there was the possibility of discrimination “would enable states to forbid publication of virtually any fact.” Herein lies one of the core problems facing women when battling discrimination—how can they battle discrimination when they do not even have control of information being published about them?

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