AGE INEQUALITY Flashcards
What are the 4 explanations + sociologists for age inequalities
functionalism
- Age inequality for the elderly has to occur to allow younger generations to take control of the family. (Parsons)
- Age inequality for the elderly has to occur to allow the younger generation to be productive at work. (Cumming and Henry, support with dependency ratio)
- Age inequality for the young has to occur to allow young people to cope with the challenges of adult life. (Eisenstadt)
- Age inequalities are a result of anomie. (DURKHEIM’S CONCEPT APPLIED TO EXPLANATION)
who supports the explaination: Age inequality for the elderly has to occur to allow younger generations to take control of the family. + their ideas
functionalist theory
PARSONS
* Society is in agreement over social roles.
* Old people disengage from their central role in the family allow space for their children to create their own families.
who are the 2 sociologists that support the explaination: Age inequality for the elderly has to occur to allow the younger generation to be productive at work. + their ideas
functionalist theory
CUMMING AND HENRY
Argued that there should always be more financially independent people than financially dependent- otherwise the economy would break down.
SUPPORT WITH DEPENDENCY RATIO
How we calculated the number of financially dependent vs financially independent individuals.
who supports the explaination: Age inequality for the young has to occur to allow young people to cope with the challenges of adult life. + their ideas
functionalist theory
EINSTADT
* Saw adolescence as a stage for developing independence.
* Youths need to go from the ascribed status of a child to achieved status of individual adult.
* Suggests that peers create a sense of community that help young people to get through struggles.
who supports the explaination: age inequalities are a result of anomie. + their ideas
functionalist theory
DURKHEIM’S CONCEPT APPLIED TO EXPLANATION
* Suicide is the leading cause of death in children and young people. Them experiencing anomie,
* no longer knowing what their role is supposed to be in society.
what are the 4 points for marxist theory of age inequality + sociologist
- the elderly act as a reserve army of labour in a capitalist society (philipson)
- individuals are kept in a false cosciousness about their exploited position (gramsci)
- the elderly are forced to become dependent to create space in the labour market for young, productive workers (phillipson & Jacobson)
- the capitalist class manipulates the elderly into rertiring and uses them as a scapegoat for societal isses (vincent)
who supports the explaination: the young and the elderly act as a reserve army of labour in a capitalist society + their ideas
marxist theory
PHILLIPSON
* stated that a reserve army of labour was necessary part of capitalism
* young and elderly were often put into zero hour contracts as temporary or flexable labour
* age inequality can be seen as something conctructed by the Bourgeoisie.
who supports the explaination: individuals are kept in a false consciousness about their exploited position + their ideas
marxist theory
GRAMSCI
* neomarxist- states importance of maintaining ruling class dominance within a capitalist system
capitalist state is made up of two overlapping systems:
* rule through force- army police and prison ect
* rule through consent- ideas and values to persuade subordinate classes
* false consciousness created of their exploitation.
who supports the explaination: the elderly are forced to become dependent to create space in the labour market for the young, productive workers + their ideas
marxist theory
PHILLIPSON AND TOWNSEND
* economy places the elderly in a negative position as a burden on the economy
* economy constantly needs to renew the workforce to employ more productive, young workers
* * the elderly are institutionally marginalised- through a process of institutional dependency (e.g. elderly being forced to retire becuase they arent seen as valuable to the economy )
who supports the explaination: the capitalist class manipulates the elderly into retiring and uses them as a scapegoat for societal issues + their ideas
marxist theory
VINCENT
sees state pensions as creating disadvantage becuase they are too low
* the issue of state pensions is made worse by setting a retirement age.
* this has been constructed by capitalism becuase of the need to control a surplus of labour and allows companies to sell private pensions.
* to justify this inequality, created a moral panic over the ageing population
* suggested this is a social construct
* ageing is presented as an ideological distraction, elderly act as a scapegoat for economic issues
what are the 3 pieces of evidence to show elderly disadvantage within the workplace?
- the national pensioners convention
- barrow and norris
- Johnson
the national pensioners convention
elderly disadvantage in the workplace
- 1 in 5 older people live below the poverty line
- majority of these are females living alone
barron & norris
elderly disadvantage in the workplace
- suggests that the elderly are more likely to be found in the secondary labour market
- this is defined by low pay, low status, no benifits.
Johnson
elderly disadvantage in the workplace
- suggested that agesim occurs in the workplace
- it is expressed through stereotypical assumptions of ones ability of a job due to theur age
- the older you get, the harder it is to get a job.
what are the 3 pieces of evidence to suggest elderly disadvantage in health?
- greengross
- the royal college of surgeons & age uk
- human rights watch
greengross
elderly disadvantage in health
- argues that the NHS is guilty of institutional ageism because older patients are treated differently
- e.g. young people have clear care plans linked with family, elderly are offered ‘end of life plans’
human rights watch
elderly disadvantage in health
- assessors appear not to understand their disabilities and social needs.
- social care assessments often have a significant impact on older peoples health, wellbeing & independence
- because they are the gateway to services
The royal college of surgeons & age uk (2014)
elderly disadvantage in health
- in some areas of the uk- no one over the age of 75 is offered crucial surgery for breast or bowel cancer and hip or knee replacements.
- despite legalisation making this illegal.
what are the 2 pieces of evidence that suggest elderly disadvantage in crime?
- age uk (2015)
- financial times (2015)
Age UK (2015)
elderly disadvantage in crime
- of those targeted of fraud scams, the financial loss for older victims was likely to be 2x as much than a younger age group
Financial times (2015)
elderly disadvatage in crime
- the number of 60+ in jail topped 4,000- more than double last years
- the number of inmates with dementia has risen
- cases of diabetes and hypertension has risen.
what are the 3 pieces of evidence for disadvantages for elderly in the media?
- carrigan and szmigin
- digital generational gap
- Landis
Landis
elderly disadvantage in the media
- the number of stereotypes in representations of older people
- they were depicted as ‘one-dimentional’
- grumpy old man, depressed/lonely, having wisdom, mentally deficient…
digital generational gap
elderly disadvantage in the media
- causes problems with employment
- older ppl are less comfortable using technology than the young
- feel unable to cope with the changes e.g. paperless banking & social media
carrigan and szmigin
elderly disadvantage in the media
- state that older people are ignored in the media advertisement- steretyped
- presented as ‘smelly & incompitent’
- seen as dependent on others
what are the 3 pieces of evidence suggesting youth disadvantage in the workplace?
- BBC three (2020)
- Ritzer
- the equality trust
BBC three (2020)
youth disadvantage in the workplace
- under 25s are treated much more harshly in the benifits system
- they dont get the same level of support as people over 25
Ritzer
youth disadvantage in the workplace
- young people are often on 0 hor contracts
& in McJobs (unsimulating, low-wage) e.g. the service industry.
the equality trust
youth disadvantage in the workplace
young people have been in a bad situation for the past decade with increasing rental, housing & accomidation costs.
what are the 2 pieces of evidence to suggest youth disadvantage in health
- youngpeopleshealth .org.uk
- the guardian
youngpeopleshealth .org.uk
youth disadvantage in health
- 75% of MH issues start before 24
- in 2014 19.1% children in yr 6 were obese
- in 2014 41,921 young people 10-24 were admitted to hospital for SH
the guardian (2019)
youth disadvantage in health
- by 2037, we will go from 6.5 million family carers to 9 million due to our ageing population.
- young people may soon find being asked to care for parents unpaid- may impact MH
what are the 2 pieces of evidence for youth disadvantage in crime
- harding
- jacobson
Harding
youth disadvantage in crime
- working class youths in london face deprivation & turn to crime for income
- harding calls it ‘street casino’ as they gamble their lives
- street capital is gained with commiting acts of deviance.
Jacobson
youth disadvantage in crime
found that children & youths in custody-
* 3/4 have absent fathers,
* half are runaways
* from care homes
* complex backgrounds
what are the 3 examples of youth disadvantage for media
- cohen
- women in journalism
- Griffin
Cohen
youth disadvantage in the media
- discussed negative labelling of youths in media
- labelled as ‘folk devil’
- self-fulfilling prophecy where youths ‘live down to their label’
Griffin
youth disadvantage in the media
states that youths are labelled by media in 3 ways:
- dysfunctional
- suffering a deficit
- deviant
women in journalism
youth disadvantage in the media
examined how teen boys were presented in national/local newspapers
1. negative language to describe them ‘thugs, scum, ferel, inhumane’
2. few stories showed them in a good light
3. teens were wary of other teens due to these stories.
NO NEW RIGHT for age inequality
what are the 4 webariansism explainations for age inequality
- a persons societal position is based on a combination of their class, status and party- age directly influences a persons social cass (WEBER)
- the young and some wlderly groups are more likely to hold lower positions within the workplace (BARREN AND NORRIS)
- young and elderly people lack status due to the lack of repiprocrity that can provide for others (TURNER)
- some age groups face a lower status in society due to their market position (PARKIN)
who supports the idea that ‘a persons societal position is based on a combination of their class, status and party- age directly influences a persons societal class’ + their ideas
webarianism
WEBER
* intervrtist approach
* people within the same class position share broadly similar life chances and defined social classas clusters of occupation
* both lose age because of their age
* ageism
* johnston- institutional ageism
who supports the idea “the young and some wlderly groups are more likely to hold lower positions within the workplace” + their ideas
weberainsim
**BARREN AND NORRIS **
who supports the idea “young and elderly people lack status due to the lack of repiprocrity that can provide for others” + their ideas
webarianism
TURNER
* turner is an exchange theory
* looked at interactions that expect something in return (reciprocity)
* as individuals mature, they gain greater status in society in a means of possesing property and having families
* we lose these statuses as we age and stop working.
* we value material wealth
who supported the idea that “some age groups face a lower status in society due to their market position” + their ideas
webarianism
PARKIN
* concept of ‘negatively privilaged status group’
* young and elderly negative effected by social segregation
* elderly often segregated in the media through a lack of positive portrayals (social closure)
what are the 4 feminist explainations for age inequality
- women face double standards (itzin)
- gender differences within the structure of the family leads to inequalities for women as they age (brannen)
- older women become excluded from media representations as they age (sontag)
- women and children suffer similar inequalities due to mutual dependency (oakley)
who supports the feminist idea that ‘women face double standards’ + their ideas
feminism
ITZIN
* mens status is directly related to employment, whereas a womens status is linked to their reproductive cycle- meaning that in a patriarchal society, a womens status is devalued after the childbearing stage.
* older women face pressures e.g. cosmetisisation- ageing men dont face the same pressures.
who supports the femninst idea that ‘gender differences within the structure of the family leads to inequalities for women as they age’ + their ideas
feminism
BRANNEN
who supports the feminist idea that ‘women and children suffer similar inequalities due to the mutual dependency’ + their ideas
feminism
OAKLEY
* women and children have mutual dependency and interdependence
* women are often responsible for caring for children, this restricts them
* children are disadvantaged (adults speak dor them, childhood issues ignored in sociology, ‘adult centred’)
who supports the feminist idea that “older women become excluded from media representations as they age” + their ideas
feminism
SONTAG
* suggests that there is a double standard of ageingand women are required to stay youthful
* western culture places great value on youth and beauty
* ageing for women is seen as a decline, but for men its seen as gaining wisdom
* older women are unsexy and irrelevent
