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As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2014, on two dark nights in November in Sheffield, huge images of older women appeared on some of the city’s most famous buildings.

Kathleen and Eleanor, in big hair and sunglasses, covered the City Hall. Jill’s wrinkles, teeth and grey hair were beamed onto the side of the Town Hall. Shirley, taking off her wig, featured on the side of Central Library in Tudor Square. These images were from the Look At Me! project led by Dr Lorna Warren from the Department of Sociology at the University of Sheffield.

The aim of the project was to examine the stereotypical way older women are portrayed in the media, if, indeed they are visible at all. Dr Warren and a team of other researchers explored these issues with women aged from 41–93 across Sheffield who then produced their own images capturing their experiences of ageing.

The project featured on BBC Radio Sheffield as passers-by were interviewed by presenter Paulette Edwards to capture their reactions to the images of the women projected onto city centre monuments. A debate was held the next day on the radio between Dr Lorna Warren, Judith Holder (producer of the Grumpy Old Women TV series) and Paulette Edwards to discuss older women’s representation in the media.

Dr Warren’s public engagement activities in the last few years have taken a trajectory that has seen her Look At Me! project achieve new heights through engagement with bigger and wider audiences.

Watch a video of the event on YouTube.

Listen to Dr Lorna Warren's interview on BBC Radio Sheffield.

On the evening of Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th November in Sheffield, huge images of older women appeared on some of the city’s most famous buildings.

Kathleen and Eleanor, in big hair and sunglasses, covered the City Hall. Jill’s wrinkles, teeth and grey hair were beamed onto the side of the Town Hall. Shirley, taking off her wig, featured on the side of the Library in Tudor Square. These images were from the NDA Look At Me! project led by Lorna Warren at the University of Sheffield.

The aim of the project was to examine the stereotypical way older women are portrayed in the media, if, indeed they are visible at all. Lorna and a team of other researchers explored these issues with women aged from 41-93 across Sheffield who then produced their own images capturing their experiences of ageing.

Kathleen and Eleanor, both well into their 80s, poked fun at the ‘before-and-after’ format of make-over shows and magazines. Jill portrayed the ambiguity of ageing, explaining “It isn’t necessarily that I feel more comfortable in myself because I’m older. Some days I feel OK and some days I see myself and I think who is that?”

Shirley, set out to capture the pleasure of dressing up - “I like a bit of glam” - but, reflecting on photographs of herself taking off her costume, realised that she was happy with the person who she was: “My hair was grey, pinned back but the face was very vibrant and I liked that, I liked me. I don’t need the mask and the wig, yes, it’s fun but actually it’s me underneath.”

Other images include Pat and Elizabeth looking contemplative and wistful in a more formal style of photograph. In contrast, 85 year-old Vienna-born Hermi has her legs up on her motorised scooter, conveying her view that: “The silver lining in old age is that you can do what you like and nobody can tell you any different.” Finally, there is Clee’s sculpture, a contemporary take on the fairytale crone with yellowing eyes and coil of chin hair.

One of Lorna Warren’s hopes was that the Look at Me! project would help make images of ‘ordinary’ older women more visible in Sheffield and beyond. She explained:

“Women aged 50 and over make up over a quarter (27.4%) of Sheffield’s population, yet we rarely see any representations of them or their lives when we are out and about in Sheffield. Sheffield City Council’s Women of Steel is an absolutely wonderful initiative and I really hope the Council manages to raise the funds to produce the planned memorial in recognition of the women who served their city and country by working in the steel industry and factories during World War I and World War II. Meanwhile, I thought it would be a great idea to project images that have been created by older women from Sheffield onto the side of buildings that symbolise public life in the city, to encourage the general public to think about the diversity of women’s lives as their grow older. Last night we beamed images onto buildings in and around the University. Tonight, it’s the turn of City Centre buildings.”

Lorna talked about the issue of women, ageing and the media with Paulette Edwards on her BBC Radio Sheffield show on Thursday afternoon (6 November). They were joined in the studio by Judith Holder, producer of the TV show Grumpy Old Women, and Shirley Simpson who took part in the Look At Me! project.

So, if you have ever wondered how female celebrities stay looking so young for so long or why Miriam O'Reilly disappeared from Country File; if you are addicted to 10 Years Younger or, like Mary Beard, consider Botox masochistic and have no interest in dying your hair, do listen to the show on BBC iPlayer.

RSRA Principal Investigator, Lorna Warren, was delighted to receive second prize in the Economic and Social Research Council's Impact Awards earlier this month. The winners were announced during a ceremony at The Royal Society, London, on 5 June 2014.

Lorna achieved second prize in the category for Outstanding Impact in Society. This is important recognition of the impact the Look at Me! project has had on participants and society more generally.

This work continues, as Lorna explained: "Through this combination of participatory arts projects, intergenerational learning on age awareness and a challenging charter, we have begun a crucial three-pronged attack to shift stereotyped and negative perceptions which we know shape the social value, opportunities and resources assigned to women as they age".

Big congratulations to the whole RSRA team!

The British Academy hosted a debate entitled, Too Old and Ugly to be Useful? Challenging Negative Representations of Older People.

Lorna Warren from the Look at Me! project took part in the debate as one of the speakers. It was another exciting opportunity to share findings from the project and to spread the word about the images that participants in the project created.

The event took place at the University of Sheffield Students' Union, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TG on Tuesday 25 March 2014 at 6pm.

Find out more about the event.

It is great news to hear that the Look at Me! project is having an impact in the policy world.

Along with colleagues in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield (Professor Alan Walker and Dr Liam Foster) Lorna submitted evidence from the Look at Me! project to the Harriet Harman/Labour Party Commission on Older Women.

We are very pleased to report that this evidence has been cited in the Interim Report (Sept 2013, p. 31). It reads: 'For women, the physical signs of ageing are frequently negatively stereotyped often becoming the butt of humour - the comic battleaxe or portrayed as victims'.

Its been a while since we have posted any news to the website. However, since the project ended in 2011 we have continued to disseminate findings from the research and to monitor the various social and academic impacts that have arisen from the work.

We are very excited about the positive feedback we continue to receive about Look at Me! and thought you might like to hear about some of this.

To learn more about what people are saying and find out what we have been up to, download our impact document (PDF, 207KB).

The Look at Me! project ended in November 2011. Since then, members of the project team have been busy writing up and giving talks on the findings.

We have also run workshops at a local school bringing together project participants and children to explore images of ageing.

Images from the project are now on display at various sites, being used on book covers, and featuring in articles.

Download the key findings from the project and details of its impact from the New Dynamics of Ageing website.

Read our press release marking the launch of the exhibition.

Ex-BBC journalist, Miriam O'Reilly, has won her employment tribunal against the BBC.

The 53 year old former Countryfile presenter claimed she had been unfairly dropped from the rural affairs show when it moved to a primetime Sunday evening slot in April 2009. This story underlines the need to raise the profile of older women in the media.

Miriam O'Reilly set to return to the BBC after winning tribunal case - The Telegraph

Miriam O'Reilly wins Countryfile ageism claim - BBC News

Countryfile's Miriam O'Reilly wins BBC ageism claim - The Guardian

A selection of the portrait photographs taken of Green Estate volunteers as part of the Look at Me! project were shown at the Dovercourt Surgery on Sky Edge Avenue, S2 from 23 July – 6 August.

The cultural development agency, Eventus, enlisted acclaimed photographer Laura Pannack, winner of a portrait prize at the World Press Awards 2010, to work alongside the women to explore how they felt about getting older in a series of photographic sessions at their homes and in local location such as Heeley City Farm and the grounds of Manor Lodge.

The photographic portraits in the Dovercourt Surgery exhibition were been personally selected by the participants as their favourites from the project as a whole.

On the 15 January 2010, we screened an American documentary called Still Doing it! about the intimate lives of women over 65.

The documentary tries to reverse the widespread stereotypes about growing older and to inspire all women to “keep doing it” – “it” being whatever turns them on. The film shows the lives of nine women who tell with honesty and humour how they feel about sex and love in later life.

We had a full house for the screening which meant there was a lively discussion afterwards. The post-screening discussion raised some interesting points. Some women said they felt inspired by the film and said they had never seen anything like it before.

Others felt it wasn’t a very nuanced portrayal. There was also a criticism that it ignored the fact that some older women don’t feel sexy or have a low libido, and that the viewing could have benefitted from a more mixed audience – including men!

The project has received coverage in The Yorkshire Post, The Times Higher Educational Supplement and has featured on BBC Radio Sheffield, and Communities Live, Sheffield.

View our press release announcing the launch of the project in October 2009.