Family And Households - Demography (topic 4) Flashcards
What are the reasons for the decline in the birth rate? (Changes in women’s position).
- Legal equality with men, including the right to vote
- Increased educational opportunities - girls now do better at school than boys.
- More women in paid employment, plus laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination.
- Changes in attitudes to family life and women’s role.
- Easier access to divorce.
- Access to abortion and reliable contraception’s, giving women more control over their fertility.
According to Sarah Harper, the education of women is the most important reason for the long term fall in birth and fertility rate. It has led to a change in mind set among women, resulting in fewer children. Not only are educated women more likely to use family planning, they now see other possibilities in life apart from the traditional role of housewife and mother. Many are choosing to delay childbearing, or not to have children at all, in order to pursue a career. She also notes that once a pattern of low fertility lasts for more than one generation, cultural norms about family size changes. Smaller families become the norm and large ones come to be seen as deviant or less acceptable.
What are reasons for the decline in birth rate? (Decline in the infant mortality rate)
The infant mortality rate (IMR) is a measure of the number of infants who die before their first birthday per thousand babies born alive per year. A fall in the IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate, as if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost, increasing the birth rate. In 1900, the UK had an IMR of 154, with over 15% of babies dying within their first year.
During the first half of the 20th century, the UK’s IMR began to fall due to improved housing, sanitation, better nutrition, knowledge of hygiene, child health, and welfare, a fall in married women working, and improved services for mothers and children. Medical factors, such as mass immunization against childhood diseases, antibiotic use, and improved midwifery and obstetric techniques, contributed to a continuing fall in the IMR.
By 1950, the UK’s IMR had fallen to 30 and by 2019 it stood at 4.6, or less than three percent of its 1900 figure. However, Brass and Kabir 1978 argue that the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas, where the IMR first began to fall, but in urban areas, where the IMR remained higher for longer.
What are reasons for the decline of birth rate? (Children are now an economic liability)
Until the late 19th century, children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out to work from an early age to earn an income. However, since the late 19th century children have gradually become an economic liability.
- Laws banning child labour, introducing compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age mean that children remain economically dependant on their parents for longer and longer.
- Changing norms about what children have e a right to except from their parents in material terms mean that the cost of bringing up children has risen.
As a result of these financial pressures, parents now feel less able or willing than in the past to have a large family.
What are reasons for the decline of birth rate? (Child centredness)
Child centredness = family unit has become more centred on the needs of children rather than the needs of adults.
The increasing child centredness both of the family and of society as a whole means that childhood is now socially constructed as uniquely important period in the individuals life. In terms of family size this has encouraged a shift from quantity to quality parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these few.
What is the effect of fewer babies being born?
- Family = smaller families means that women are more likely to be free to go to work, thus creating the dual earner couple typical of many professional families. However, family size is only one factor here. For example, better off couples may be able to have larger families and still afford childcare that allows them both to work full time.
- The dependency ratio = The dependency ratio is the ratio between the working population and the non-working population. The working population’s earnings, savings, and taxes support the dependent population. A decrease in children reduces the burden of dependency on the working population. However, fewer babies will result in fewer young adults and a smaller working population, increasing the burden of dependency. Falling fertility rates also lead to fewer children, making childhood less sociable and less valued. Conversely, fewer children may lead to increased value for them. Overall, the dependency ratio is a complex and interconnected issue.
- Public services and policies = Lower birth rates impact public services, such as schools, maternity and child health services, and housing costs. However, these are often political decisions, such as reducing school numbers or implementing smaller class sizes. Additionally, the aging population is a consequence of fewer babies, as the average age of the population is rising, with more elderly people compared to younger people.
What is Tranter view on the decline in death rates?
According to Tranter, over three quarters of the decline in the death rate from about 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as diphtheria, measles, smallpox, typhoid and above all tuberculosis. Death from infectious disease were commonest in the young and most of the decline in the death rate occurred among infants, children and young adults.
By the 1950 so called diseases of affluence such as heart disease and cancer had replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death. These degenerative diseases affect the middle aged and old more than the young.
The social factors that have an impact on death rates:
- Improved nutrition
- Medical improvements
- Smoking and diet
- Public health measures
- Other social changes
What are the social changes that have an impact on death rates? (Improved nutrition)
Thomas McKeown argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates, and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths from tuberculosis. Better nutrition increased resistance of infections and increased the survival chances of those who did become infected.
However, McKeown does not explain why females, who received a smaller share of the family food supply, lived longer than males. Similarly, he fails to explain why deaths from infectious diseases, such as measles and infant diarrhoea, actually rose at a time of improving nutrition.
What are the social changes that impacted on the death rates? (Medical improvements)
Before the 1950s, despite some important innovations, medical improvements played almost no part in the reductions of deaths from infectious diseases.
However, after the 1950s improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisations did help to reduce death rates. Advances included the introduction of antibiotics, immunisation, blood transfusion, improved maternity services, as well as the setting up of the national health service in 1948. More recently, improved medication, by pass surgery and other developments have reduced deaths from heart disease by one third.
What are the social factors that impact the death rates? (Smoking and diet)
According to Harper, the greatest fall in death rates in recent decades has come not from medical improvements, but simply from a reduction in the number of people smoking. However, in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. For example, in 2012, one quarter of all UK adults were obese.
Yet, although obesity has increased dramatically, deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies.
Harper suggests that we may be moving to an ‘American’ health culture where lifestyles are unhealthy but where a long lifespan is achieved by use of costly medication.
What are the social factors that impact death rate? (Public health measures)
In the 20th century, more effective central and local government with the necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of the environment.
These included improvements in housing (producing drier, better ventilated, less overcrowded accommodation), purer drinking water, laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink, the pasteurisation of milk, and improved sewage disposal methods. Similarly, the Clean Air Acts reduced air pollution, such as the smog that led to 4,000 deaths in five days in 1952.
What are social factors that impact death rate? (Other social changes)
Other social changes also played a part in reducing the death rate during the 20* century. These included:
- The decline of dangerous manual occupations such as mining
- Smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infections.
- Greater public knowledge of the causes fines
- Lifestyle changes, especially the reduction in the number of men who smoke.
- Higher incomes, allowing for a heathe tesye.
What are the effects of the ageing population?
- Public services = Older people consume a larger proportion of services such as health and social care than other age groups. This is particularly true of the ‘old old’ (usually defined as 75 or over) as against the ‘young old’ (65-74). However, we should beware of over-generalising, since many people remain in relatively good health well into old age.
In addition to increased expenditure on health care, an ageing population may also mean changes to policies and provision of housing, transport or other services. - One-person pensioner households = The number of pensioners living alone has increased and one-person pensioner households now account for about 15% or one in seven of all households. Most of these are female, both because women generally live longer than men, and because they are usually younger than their husbands. Among the over-75s, there are twice as many women as men. This has been described as the ‘feminisation of later life’.
- The dependency ratio = The non-working old are economically dependent on working age individuals for pensions and healthcare. As the number of retired people increases, the dependency ratio on the working population increases. However, it’s not always true that ‘old’ equals ‘economically dependent’. The age at which men and women can draw their state pensions has increased from 65 to 66, and it’s predicted to rise further to 67 in 2026 and 68 in 2037. This increase in the elderly population offsets the decrease in dependent children.
How does modern society affect old age?
Many sociologists argue that ageism is the result of structured dependency. The old are largely excluded from paid work, leaving them economically dependant on their families or the state. In modern society, our identity and status are largely determined by our role in production. Those excluded from production by compulsory retirement have a dependant status and a stigmatised identity.
A Marxists perspective - Philipson - argues that the old are of no use to capitalism because they are no longer productive. As a result, the state is unwilling to support them adequately and so the family, especially female relatives, often has to take responsibility for their care.
How does the postmodern society affect old age?
Postmodernist sociologists argue that in today’s postmodern society, the fixed, orderly stages of the life course have broken down. For example, trends such as children dressing in adult styles, later marriage and early retirement all begin to blur the boundaries between the life stages. This gives individuals a greater choice of lifestyles, whatever their age.
Unlike in modern society, consumption, not production, becomes the key to our identities. We can now define ourselves by what we consume. As Hunt argues, this means we can choose a lifestyle and identity regardless of age: our age no longer determines who we are or how we live. As a result, the old become a market for a vast range of body maintenance or rejuvenation goods and services through which they create their identities. These include cosmetic surgery, exercise equipment, gym memberships and anti-aging products. These trends begin to break down the ageist stereotypes found in Morden society. Two features of post modern society also undermines old age as a stigmatised life stage:
- The centrality of the media = media images now portrays positive aspects of the lifestyles of the elderly.
- The emphasis on surface features = the body becomes a surface on which we can write identities. Anti-aging products enable the old to write different identities for themselves.
What is Pilcher arguments on inequality among the old?
Pilcher argues that inequalities such a class and gender remain important. Many of these are related to the individuals previous occupational position.
. Class - the middle class have better occupational pensions and greater savings from higher salaries. Poorer old people have a shorter life expectancy and suffer more infirmity (making it more difficult to maintain a youthful self-identity).
. Gender - women’s lower earnings and career breaks as carers mean low pensions. They are also subject to sexist as well as stereotyping, for example being described as old hags.
Postmodernists understate the importance of inequalities. These are related to the structure of wider society and they play a major part in shaping the experiences of old age, often restricting the freedom of the elderly to choose an identity through their consumption. Older people also face discrimination that limits their choices, age concern found more people (29%) reported suffering age discrimination than any other form.
What is Donald Hirsch argument on the policy implications?
Donald Hirsch argues that a number of important social policies will need to change to tackle the new problems posed by an ageing population. The main problem will be how to finance a longer period of old age. This can be done by paying more from our savings and taxes while we are working, or by work in for longer or both.
Similarly, housing policy may need to change to encourage older people to trade down into smaller accommodation. This would release wealth to improve their standard of living and free up housing for younger people.
As Hirsch recognises, these policy changes also require a cultural change in our attitudes towards old age. His view illustrates the notion that old age is a social construct - not a fixed, purely biological fact, but something shaped and defined by society. For example, in an ageing society, our idea of how old is old enough to retire may change.
What is differentiation in globalisation and migrants?
Migrants in the UK include permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses, and forced migrants like refugees and asylum seekers. Globalisation has increased the diversity of migrants, with students becoming a major group. Before the 1990s, immigration to the UK came from a narrow range of former British colonies, forming a small number of stable, geographically concentrated, and homogenous ethnic communities. However, since the 1990s, globalisation has led to’super-diversity’, with migrants coming from a much wider range of countries. Even within a single ethnic group, individuals differ in terms of their legal status, culture, or religion, and are widely dispersed throughout the UK.
Class differences among migrants are also evident. Robin Cohen (2006) distinguishes three types: citizens with full citizenship rights, denizens, and helots. Citizens have voting rights and access to benefits, while denizens are privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state. Helots are the most exploited group, found in unskilled, poorly paid work and include legally trafficked workers and those legally tied to particular employers.
What is feminisation in migrants in globalisation and migrants?
The globalisation of the gender division of labour has led to nearly half of all global migrants being female, often fitting into patriarchal stereotypes about women’s roles as carers or sexual service providers. This trend is influenced by factors such as the expansion of service occupations in western countries, the reluctance of Western women to perform domestic labor, the unwillingness of Western men to perform domestic labor, and the state’s failure to provide adequate childcare. As a result, women from poor countries are increasingly taking on care work, domestic work, and sex work in western countries like the UK and USA. Additionally, there is a global transfer of women’s emotional labor, with migrant nannies providing care and affection for employers’ children while leaving their own children behind in their home country. Migrant women also enter western countries as’mail order’ brides, reflecting gendered and racialized stereotypes. Women migrants also enter UK as illegally trafficked sex workers, often kept in conditions amounting to slavery.
What is hybrids identities and transnational?
We all have multiple sources of identity, including family, friends, neighborhood, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. Migrants and their descendants may develop hybrid identities, which are made up of multiple sources. For example, second-generation Bangladeshi Muslims in Britain created hierarchical identities, seeing themselves as Muslim, Bengali, and British. These hybrid identities may face challenges from others who challenge their identity claims or accuse them of not fitting in.
Globalisation has led to more diverse migration patterns, with migrants moving through networks rather than permanently settling in another country. This has resulted in migrants developing transnational identities and loyalties, rather than identifying with one culture or country. Modern technology allows for global ties to be sustained without travel. The globalised economy allows migrants to have more connections to other migrants worldwide than to their country of origin or settlement. For example, Chinese migrants in Rome found Mandarin more useful for everyday life than Italian, indicating that migrants in a globalized world are less likely to desire assimilation into the host culture.
What are the politicisation of migration?
Migration has become a significant political issue, with states implementing policies to control immigration, absorb migrants into society, and address ethnic and cultural diversity. Assimilationism, the first state policy approach, aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values, and customs of the host culture. However, Eriksen notes that it faces challenges from transnational migrants with hybrid identities who may not be willing to abandon their culture or see themselves as belonging to just one nation-state. Multiculturalism accepts that migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity, but this acceptance may be limited to superficial aspects of cultural diversity. Eriksen distinguishes it by:
- Shallow diversity = this refers to surface-level difference in culture that are visible and easy to observe, such as dress, food or festivals. These differences don’t typically challenge the dominant social norms or values of society. Shallow diversity might be seen as more accepted or tolerated, as it doesn’t disrupt the overall structure of society.
- Deep diversity = this refers to more fundamental or profound differences in beliefs, values and ways of life, which can challenge the dominant norms or social structure. Deep diversity might include differences in religion, political views or family structure and it may involve a stronger push for change or recognition within society. Deep diversity is often more contentious because it can challenge existing power dynamics or social norms.
Critics argue that multicultural education policies celebrate shallow diversity while failing to address deeper problems, such as racism.
After the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, many politicians have reverted to demanding cultural assimilation, such as making veiling in public in France illegal in 2010. However, assimilationist policies can be counterproductive, as they mark minority groups as culturally backward or ‘Other’, leading to increased suspicion and potential anti-terrorism policies. Additionally, assimilationist ideas may encourage workers to blame migrants for social problems, leading to racist scapegoating and preventing united action in defense of their interests.
