Family 4 - Changing Family Patterns Flashcards
What is demography?
Who makes up society by statistics
Why study demography?
- Suggest policies to improve life for specific groups (e.g. women’s employment laws, education acts)
- Changes in society over time and their impact (e.g decreased birth rate)
- Research issues experienced by these different groups
Why has the population of Britain increased over the last 100 years?
Natural change (births minus deaths) NOT net migration (immigrants minus emigrants)
What’s the birth rate in 1990 and 2014 per 1,000?
1990 = 29
2014 = 12.2
Why has the birth rate decreased?
Changing position of women (e.g. working)
Lower infant mortality
Children are an economic liability
We’re more child-centred
Why has IMR (infant mortality rate) decreased?
Better healthcare
Better standards of living
How have changing women’s role affected birth rate?
Shorter relationships (divorce, etc.) you might only have children in a secure relationship therefore less children are being born
Further education for women so women wouldn’t want children whilst studying and have them later when fertility is lower AND women’s attitudes have changed so they want less (Sarah Happer 2012)
Changing attitudes to women’s roles in family so women are working more and aren’t expected to have children
Birth control, abortion are less stigmatised so more often used
More likely to work, and work full time so less time to both have children and take care of them
Why are children now an economic liability?
Changes in how society sees children
Laws
How is child-centredness affecting birth rate?
Parents have more to do
What is the dependency ratio?
Number of children (0-15) + number of pensioners (>65)
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Number of working age (16-65)
Whats the rough amount of deaths for the past 100 years?
600,000 per year
Why has the death rate decreased?
The population has increased considerably so the number of deaths per 1,000 has decreased
What was the death rate in 1990 and 2014?
19 and 8.9
Why has the death rate decreased?
Nutrition
Public health
Medical improvements
Social changes
Why has nutrition affected the death rate?
Better access to food -> choose healthy diet
Advances in farming tech -> vitamins
Education (link to med conditions)
Access to clean water
McKeown (1972) nutrition has halved the death rate -> fight diseases
Whats the criticism of nutrition affecting death rate?
Doesn’t explain why females live longer than males (females get less of the household food)
Diet is also the cause of a lot of new diseases (type 2 diabetes)
Diseases of affluence means we’re eating the wrong thing
Death of measles and infant diarrhoea increased when people had more access to nutrition
How has public health helped decrease death rate?
NHS free to everyone (1948)
Better legislation e.g water, sewage, pollution, less overcrowding of houses
How has medical advancements decreased the death rate?
Introduction of talking cure in 1918 for shell shock (William Rivers)
1940s - antibiotics saved 15% of soldiers in WW2
1958 - mass vaccination AND ultrasound
1960 onwards - organ transplants
New medicines = increased survival (e.g. cancer)
New technology = improvements in medical research
Heart disease has been reduced by a third
Criticisms of medical improvements?
Overuse of antibiotics = resistant bacteria
How has social changes decreased the death rate?
Improved education - greater knowledge of hygiene
Better living standards (higher wages, increasing quality of social housing)
Safer working conditions (closure of dangerous manual occupations) 1974
Introduction of social media and internet means more communication and knowledge of better lifestyles and illness symptoms
Social trends (smoking decreased)
Criticisms of social changes affecting death rate?
Social media and internet increases fake news, doesn’t help peoples health (stress) and give false information
Now alternates to smoking (vaping)
Whats the difference between structural sociologists (functionalists) and postmodernists view on ageism?
Structural - old age is a life stage, stigmatised with associations of dependency and being a burden
Postmodernists - people are always free to choose their identities through our lifestyle
Why is there an ageing population?
Increasing life expectancy
Declining infant mortality
Declining fertility
What are the effects of an ageing population?
Older people consume a larger proportion of public services which could cause changes in public services
There’s a ‘feminisation of later life’ because women live longer, and one person is living in a bigger house than they need
The dependency ratio increases
Ageism
Why does ageism exist?
Result of ‘structured dependancy’ (excluded from paying work so are dependant)
Phillipson (1982) old are no longer useful to capitalism so the state is unwilling to support them
What do postmodernists say about ageism?
Life stage boundaries are being blurred
We are a consumer culture so the old are a market, going against stereotypes
Inequalities among the old?
Pilcher (1995) class and gender remain important in old age (postmodernists understate these)
What needs to change to tackle ageism?
Paying more from saving/tax
Housing policies to encourage older people to move to smaller accommodation so younger people can have better housing
Cultural change in our attitudes towards old age
