P2 Families and Households - Ageing Population

Question 1

What are the public health measures that have helped produce the decline in the death rate?

Answer 1

• Improvement in housing
• Drinking water
• Food and drink laws
• Improved sewerage
• Clean air acts
• The NHS

Question 2

What are the reasons for the decline in the birth rate during the 20th century?

Answer 2

• Changes in the position of women
• Decline in the infant mortality rate
• Children are now an economic liability
• Child centred families
• Contraception

Question 3

What reasons for class differences in infant mortality?

Answer 3

• Class differences in factors such as family size
• Access to good housing, sanitation, nutrition
• Mothers knowledge of hygiene
• Access to health services
• Uptake of immunizations

Question 4

How might population trends in the UK be related to the increase in the proportion of married women working?

Answer 4

Married women may lead to a fall in the birth rate because they tend to delay childbearing or may not have children at all

Question 5

What are the reasons for the decline in maternal mortality?

Answer 5

• Smaller families
• Better knowledge of hygiene
• Improved antenatal and postnatal services
• Better nutrition

Question 6

What are the reasons for women today having children at a later age than earlier generations?

Answer 6

They are continuing their education, starting careers, cohabiting and establishing a home before starting a family

Question 7

What is the ageing population caused by?

Answer 7

1. Increasing life expectancy
2. Declining infant mortality
3. Declining fertility

Question 8

How might the ageing population affect society?

Answer 8

1. Pensions contributions is high
2. Dependency ratio = unbalanced
3. Retirement age increase therefore working age is older
4. Increase in extended families
5. More one person households
6. Social policy changes to focus on the elderly

Question 9

What is ageism?

Answer 9

Negative stereotype and unequal treatment of people on the basis of their age

Question 10

What are reasons for ageism?

Answer 10

1. Structured dependency (exclusion from work leads to economic dependency on families)
2. Philipson argues its no use to capitalism
3. Fixed life stages (childhood, youth, adolescence)

Question 11

What do postmodernists argue about ageism?

Answer 11

1. Fixed orderly life stages have broken down - children dressing as adults, later marriage, early retirement - blurs the boundaries
2. Greater lifestyle choices - consumption, defined by what we consume
3. They argue that old age is a market for identity creation and it undermines ageist stereotypes

Question 12

What does Hunt argue about ageism?

Answer 12

We choose a lifestyle and identity regardless of our age, age no longer determines who we are or how we live.

Question 13

What does Pilcher argue about inequalities among the old?

Answer 13

He argues inequalities in class and gender remain important in old age.

Question 14

What are inequalities among the old in classes?

Answer 14

Middle class have better pensions, more savings, working class have a lower life expectancy

Question 15

What are inequalities among the old in gender?

Answer 15

Women earn less in their working lives = lower pensions. Face sexist discrimination = “old hags”

Question 16

What does Donald Hirsch argue about policy implications?

Answer 16

He argues that a number of important social policies will have to change:
- Savings, retirement age, taxes
- Housing policies encourage older people to trade down

Cultural change in attitude is also needed - age is a social construct