Age in the city: embodied ageing in financial services

This chapter explores intersections between ageing and masculinity in the hyper-masculinist culture of hedge funds. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research, we show how the traders’ experience of ageing is shaped by organising principles of masculinity, individualism and competence that reflect cultural norms in financial services. We found that the ageing body had to be worked upon because being fit for work was a fundamental part of the presentation of the self to colleagues and clients. We also show how occupational and organisational discourses of strength, endurance and rationality placed limits on how ageing could be resisted both now and in the future.