AGE EVIDENCE Flashcards
Workplace
Johnson – Suggested that ageism occurs in the workplace in UK. Johnson suggests that ageism is institutionalised and embedded in practices and society. Ageism in the workplace is expressed through the stereotypical assumptions about a person’s competency to do a job in relation to their age. Older people find it much more difficult to get a job as they get older and face stereotypes in the workplace.
Ritzer - Young people are often on zero hour contracts and in what Ritzer calls ‘McJobs’ (unstimulating, low-wage job with few benefits, especially in a service industry).
Barron and Norris - Suggests that young people and the elderly are more likely to be found in the secondary labour market which is defined by low pay, low status, a lack of chance of promotion and few fringe benefits e.g. no access to private pensions etc
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media
Cohen - Discussed negative labelling of youths in the media E.g. the Mods and Rockers. He stated that they are labelled as ‘folk devils’ who threaten the basic morals of society. This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where youths ‘live down to their label’.
Griffin – Stated that youths are labelled by the media in 3 ways:
Dysfunctional, Suffering a Deficit, Deviant
Age Concern - Old people are disproportionately stereotyped as a burden, mentally challenged and grumpy.
Carrigan and Szmigin - State that older people are ignored in media advertising and when they are included they are stereotyped and presented as a caricature of an elderly person - They are presented as ‘smelly and incontinent’ and in need of support meaning they are seen as dependent on others.
Sontag – Suggests that there is a double standard of aging, especially in television, whereby women are required to be youthful throughout their media careers and men are not.
crime
Jacobson – Found that children and young people in custody - three quarters have absent fathers, half had to live in a deprived household, half had run away, from care – “Complex backgrounds”.
Harding - Working class youths in London face deprivation and turn to crime for income – Harding calls this a ‘Street Casino’ as they turn to crime and gamble with their lives – street capital is gained through committing deviance/criminal activities.
Age UK (2015) of those targeted by fraud scams, the financial loss for older victims (those aged 55 and over) was likely to be nearly twice as much per scam as that for younger age groups.
health
gov.uk 6 in 10 diagnosed with Chlamydia are aged 16 to 24.
Greengross argues that the NHS is guilty of institutional ageism because older patients are treated differently from the young, denied clinical treatments etc.
The Royal College of Surgeons and Age UK (2014) - In some areas of the UK no one over the age of 75 is being offered crucial surgery for breast cancer and very few undergo bowl cancer surgery or have knee and hip replacements – despite legislation making this illegal from 2012.
