Component 3: Age Inequalities

Question 1

What are the functionalist explanations of age inequality?

Answer 1

1. Age is a threat to social stability
2. Youth is a transitory stage from childhood to adulthood
3. The elderly and disengagement theory

Question 2

Who argues that age is a threat to social stability?

Answer 2

Parsons

Question 3

Who argues the elderly and disengagement theory?

Answer 3

Cummings and Henry

Question 4

Would functionalists argue that there is social mobility for young and older groups in the contemporary UK?

Answer 4

For younger people when they get to the right age yes, but for older people no

Question 5

What are the new right explanations of age inequality?

Answer 5

1. Old age inequality is the result of biology

2. Youth in the underclass

Question 6

Who argues old age inequality is the result of biology?

Answer 6

Saunders

Question 7

Who argues youth in the underclass?

Question 8

Would the new right argue that there is social mobility for all age groups in the contemporary UK?

Answer 8

Yes, I’d you work hard when you’re younger

Question 9

What are the Marxist and neo Marxist explanations of age inequality?

Answer 9

1. The young and the old are part of the reserve army of Labour
2. Age inequality legitimises authority
3. Black youth

Question 10

Who argues the young and the old are part of the reserve army of Labour?

Answer 10

Engels

Question 11

Who argues age inequality legitimises authority?

Answer 11

Gramsci
Althusser
Phillipson

Question 12

Who argues black youth?

Answer 12

Hall

Gilroy

Question 13

What does Hall argue?

Answer 13

That the labelling of black youth as nuggets stigmatises black young men as folk devils and diverse attention from the realities of capitalism

Question 14

Would Marxists argue that there is social mobility for all age groups in the contemporary UK?

Answer 14

No,however it’s not just age it’s age and class

Question 15

What are the social action theory explanations of age inequality

Answer 15

1. The lower market position and status of the elderly and young people
2. Labelling theory

Question 16

Who argues the lower market position and status of the elderly and young people?

Answer 16

Weber

Question 17

Who argues labelling theory?

Answer 17

Cohen

Question 18

Would social action theory argue that there is social mobility for all age groups in the contemporary UK?

Answer 18

No

Question 19

What are the feminist explanations of age inequality?

Answer 19

1. The gendered experience of old age and ageism
2. The age double standard and cosmeticisation
3. The control of social women

Question 20

Who argued the gendered experience of old age and ageism

Answer 20

Crenshaw

Gender pay gap

Question 21

Who argues the age double standard and cosmeticisation?

Answer 21

Itzin

Wolf

Question 22

What does Crenshaw argue?

Answer 22

Ageism is imbedded within society and women experience it in terms of the interplay between gender, race and class

Question 23

What does Itzin argue?

Answer 23

Women face a double standard because whilst men’s status is directly related to employment, women’s status is linked to their reproductive cycle

Question 24

What does Wolf suggest?

Answer 24

That older women have to try and retain sexual attractiveness by remanning young in order to be treated as the equals of men

Question 25

Who argues the social control of women

Answer 25

Heidensohn
McRobbie
Oakley

Question 26

What does Heidensohn argue?

Answer 26

That women of all ages face greater social controls over their behaviour in the public and private spheres, especially in terms of their roles as wives and mothers

Question 27

What does Oakley argue?

Answer 27

That differential socialisation teaches girls to care for others and this has a long term impact on women as when in old age they are more likely to be in poverty due to their lifetime of economic dependence on men

Question 28

What are the postmodernist explanations of age inequality?

Answer 28

1. The ageing or greying of the population

2. Positive ageism and the grey pound

Question 29

Who argues the ageing or greying of the population?

Answer 29

Zombie category - Beck

Question 30

Who argues positive ageism and the grey pound?

Answer 30

Blaikie

Question 31

What does Blaikie argue?

Answer 31

That consumer culture is responsible for changing age related stereotypes