Age and Stratification Flashcards
(21 cards)
Age is a social construct
geing is a physical process, there is also a social dimension in so far that attitudes towards ageing are essentially CULTURAL. Although in most societies age is divided into different significant periods – childhood, youth, young adulthood, middle age and older age, these periods have differing social meanings attached to them with different social expectations about behaviour, and lifestyle, responsibilities and so on. The varying perceptions of age, life stages and older age are known as ‘SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS’.
Bradley (1996) suggests that the study of age is ‘the neglected dimension of stratification’; in particular, the loss of status of the elderly in industrialised societies is a major contributor to their low regard; for example, the elderly make up a significant proportion of those living in poverty. Younger and older people experience ageism and middle aged people are the advantaged group.
Social construction = norms and values around what is normal for different age groups, how aging is viewed etc are culturally specific
Ageism
The term “ageism” refers to discrimination based on the characteristic of age.
It was coined by a Doctor (and activist) called Robert Butler in 1968.
Butler argued that ageism exists in all cultures and that ageist attitudes and biases based on stereotypes affect older people in particular.
Often, the elderly are reduced to inferior or limited positions in society due to ageism.
Ageism can make older people fear losing a job, feel dismissed by a doctor, or feel a lack of power and control in their daily living situations. Ageism can manifest itself in serval ways;
Prejudicial attitudes toward ageing
Discriminatory practices
Institutional practices and policies
Types of Ageism – direct discrimination
Direct discrimination occurs when someone is treated less favorably than others because of a protected characteristic, as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. This means someone is disadvantaged or put at a disadvantage directly due to their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.
Types of ageism-indirect discrimination
vIndirect discrimination happens when a seemingly neutral rule, policy, or practice has a disproportionately negative impact on people with a protected characteristic, even if it’s not intended to be discriminatory. Under the Equality Act 2010, this applies to protected characteristics like age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage/civil partnership
Types of Ageism - Harassment
In the legal sense, these are behaviors that appear to be disturbing, upsetting, or threatening.
Types of Ageism - Victimisation
Victimisation, as defined under UK equality law, is being treated less favorably because someone has engaged in, or is suspected of engaging in, a “protected act”. This usually means making or supporting a complaint about discrimination or harassment. It’s important to note that victimisation is a form of discrimination, and it can happen even if the person being targeted doesn’t have a protected characteristic themselves.
Effects of an ageing population
Use services such as NHS and social care services more- drain on underfunded services, bed blocking
Increased expenditure on services such as, housing (old people’s homes), transport (free bus pass)
Big increase in benefits being paid to older groups such as state pension, Independent Living Allowance (ILA)
More lone person households
Shortage of housing stock for families with children
More beanpole families
The sandwich generation-more pressure on women
Age and Intersectionality
The old are not one homogenous group
Age interacts with class, gender and ethnicity and this affects the way ageing is experienced
Social class differences continue into old age (home ownership, private pensions, personal savings and investments, inherited wealth)
All of these more likely to be enjoyed by pensioners who had middle class occupations.
Minority ethnic groups (because of disadvantages suffered in the labour market) are more likely to be poor , women from ethnic minorities even more so. Minority ethnic youth are more likely to experience discrimination in the criminal justice system and school
Older women experience differential experiences to older men.
Functionalism and Age
Ageing is seen as an inevitable and positive process that serves a function for society and individuals (consensus and stability)
This means that ageing has often been viewed uncritically by functionalist like Parsons
For Parsons, having different age groups and ‘role sets’ - roles associated with them is functional and allows people to transition to new phases in life such as employment or retirement for instance.
Eisenstadt (1956) argued that different generational groups contribute to cohesion and solidarity as they enable individuals to learn and acquire new social roles at different times of life through socialisation.
Functionalism: Disengagement Theory
Cumming and Henry (1961)
The process whereby older individuals gradually disengage and withdraw themselves from wider society by retiring from work for example. Thus, passing on their social roles to the younger generations.
This is functional and positive for society
They see this as a natural process as we approach the phase of being elderly.
They also suggest this is a gendered process, because men and women have different social roles.
Because men focus on work and women focus on marriage and family, when they with draw, they will need to find new roles and activity to fill that space.
Evaluation of the functionalist perspective on age
functionalist perspective of age?
An over-emphasis on the smoothness of transition from one age group to another.
Ignores the intersectionality of age with gender, ethnicity and social class.
Disengagement theory ignores the inequalities of age – people may not voluntarily retire or remove themselves from active participation in society.
Disengagement can lead to the neglect and undervaluing of older people’s skills and experience.
The New Right and Age
Some people better prepare themselves for old age (savings, property, private pensions)
However, many people do not prepare well, and therefore an ageing population is a problem. Eg: income and wealth –poverty in old age for example is caused by a failure to prepare for old age. Health-ill health is down to not looking after yourself properly, smoking, drinking etc
In 2017, the FCA found that 31% of UK adults have no private pension provision and will have to rely entirely on the state in their retirement (£185.15 per week)
The state have encouraged people to believe it will provide for them in their old age (pensions, NHS) and this leads to irresponsible behaviour.
Evaluation – Many argue the NHS can discriminate against older people. Greengross argues the NHS is institutionally ageist for limiting the availability of treatments and procedures to older people. Furthermore insurances, hiring a car, credit cards may all be more difficult.
Marxism and Age
Marxists argue both the young and the old are part of the “reserve army of labour”. This means they provide a cheap pool of flexible labour that can be hired and fired as necessary.
People who may not usually work from disadvantaged groups (young, old, ethnic minority, woman) or have limited choices in terms of employment, are willing to work for low wages in insecure jobs.
The old and the young may take on jobs in times of economic growth, but will be the first to be let go in times of economic downturn
The young need to be socialised into a capitalist system successfully to ensure a docile workforce is maintained.
Neo-Marxist Perspectives of age -althusseur
Althusser (1971) argued that welfare payments given to the young (child benefit etc) and the old (state pensions) were a tool used by capitalism to maintain false class consciousness.
The welfare state stops the most vulnerable feeling the full force of exploitation and this therefore prevents any kind of revolutionary action. He argues that the benefits system forms part of the ideological state apparatus.
Neo-Marxist Perspectives - Philipson
Philipson (1982) argues that capitalism views the elderly as a burden on society. The logic of capitalism is incompatible with the needs of the elderly, as it based on the exploitation of workers for profit. People are valued according to their productivity and disposable income. The elderly are neglected in capitalist societies as they no longer have the spending power which is attractive to capitalists.
Older people lose status as they become identified as being a drain on the economy – a cost to capitalism. State pensions are inadequate and leave the elderly reliant on state welfare (unless they could afford private pensions).This reinforces their low status in society, as a group who are dependent on handouts from the state.
However, some older people are part of the bourgeois elite and have high levels of status and power.
There is significant inequality between the upper class and working class older generation.
Neo-Weberianism and Age
Weberians argue a person’s position in society depends on their economic power, social status and political power. Younger and older generations will have less of these types of power although this is in part dependent on other aspects of identity such as class, gender and ethnicity.
There is a connection between Marxist ideas of a ‘reserve army of labour’ and the Weberian notion of the ‘dual labour market’, where different groups find themselves in different sectors of the workforce due to structural inequalities.
Interactionism and Labelling theory
Ageing tends to be labelled and represented negatively by the media. For instance, the elderly may be stereotyped as incapable.
Ray et al argue that there is evidence that the mental capability and wellbeing of the elderly can be negatively affected by exposure to stereotypical labels and experiences of ageism. They show that negative labelling and stereotyping of elderly people by infantilizing them with baby talk for instance, can lead them to accept that they cannot be independent adults and thus become more passive and less active.
Furthermore, negative stereotyping can affect the way a person reacts to ageing themselves.
Labelling and Media Representations
However, not all groups are poorly represented in the media…
There are significant gender differences in the way older people are represented in the media
Older men are much more visible in the media than older women, and older men are much more likely to be associated with high status and work while older women are generally associated with the family and poverty
Lee et al (2007) found that although only 15% of advertisements featured elderly people, more than 90% of representations were positive – portraying elderly people as ‘golden agers’ enjoying healthy, active lifestyles
Kelly (2018) found that young people are often described in the media as being dangerous, in need of protection, or as immature
Stan Cohen argued that the media can create moral panics around young people.
Feminism and age
Feminists believe that ageing is a gendered process, and therefore experiences differ between men and women
Females tend to live longer on average (in the developed world) but they are more likely to experience poverty and downward mobility in old age
Older women bearing the burden of a lifetime of lower pay and unequal working conditions
Older women are more vulnerable to financial difficulties than men, with both their employment history and family circumstances impacting on pension income and ability to save, according to a report out today from the Centre for Ageing Better. The report, Inequalities in later life, highlights huge disparities in health, financial security, social connections, and housing, with negative impacts for those who are worse off that accumulate as they grow older.
Give a Feminist explanation of this – gender pay gap, glass ceiling, care responsibilities, triple shift.
Postmodernism and age
Due to the ageing population, the age at which people consider themselves “old” is increasing
Therefore, chronological age no longer shaping people’s life experiences in the same way
Individualisation and consumerism allow for ‘age-avoidance’ via choices of lifestyles
Age is no longer prescriptive concerning the range of activities that people may engage in
Older people are becoming more “tech savvy” and therefore are able to engage with new technologies in the same way as other age groups
Featherstone and Hepworth (1982) state that there are no distinct life stages anymore
Older people keep themselves youthful, and younger people are encouraged to act older than they are by the media
can link to post modernism
Pilcher (postmodernist) argues that differences between age groups are blurring
Today, older people behave in a manner once seen as the domain of the young
“age based transitions and norms, forms and standards of behaviour which were previously strictly defined, regulated and orderly are becoming less fixed, less constraining, less orderly” (Pilcher 1995)
As we move to a post-industrial economy, the different phases of the life course have become less clear
