Age Inequalities

Question 1

Prout and James? (Interactionist)

Answer 1

Argue that age categories are socially constructed and vary in different societies.
Eg rites of passage

Question 2

Carrigan and Szmigin? (Interactionists)

Answer 2

The elderly are labelled negatively eg being smelly and incontinent. Perhaps these step types become reality.

Question 3

Cohen (Interactionist)

Answer 3

Work on moral panics. Relevant explanation for inequalities that young people face.

Question 4

Hockey and James (Interactionist)

Answer 4

Discuss the term infantalised which is used to describe the way that old people are treated like young children. Eg in care homes being bathed and not having control over their own money.

Question 5

Weber (Weberian)

Answer 5

Looks at class, status and party. The young and the sleepy lose status because of their age. Young people lack the power to make changes in their society (they lack party). Social class is effected by market position which is linked to qualifications. Young people may lack market position necessary for a higher class position.

Question 6

Parkin? (Weber)

Answer 6

Negatively privileged status groups. Can be applied to age as the young and old can also be kept out of privileged status groups by social segregation. The elderly are often socially segregated in the media through invisibility, in employment, retirement and care homes.

Question 7

Barron and Norris (Weber)

Answer 7

Dual labour market.

Question 8

Amber and Ginn. (Feminists)

Answer 8

When looking at women and inequality, factors such as age will affect their power. Older women face inequalities that older men do not.

Question 9

Sontag? (Feminism)

Answer 9

Old women are more likely to be in high profile media roles. Women’s biological ageing is less desirable than men.

Question 10

Itzin? (Feminism)

Answer 10

Women face a double standard. Men’s status is directly related to employment, whereas women’s is linked to their reproductive cycle. Women’s status devalues after childbearing age. So, older women face lower status. Therefore,older women feel pressure to fight the signs of ageing (known as cosmeticisation). Ageing men don’t necessarily find the same pressures.

Question 11

Gannon? (Feminism)

Answer 11

Looks at myths to do with ageing and argues that the differences in the ageing process are more to do with lifestyles and expectations placed on women rather than biology.
Andocentric = men as the norm and females hormones as a problem.
Scientific discourses portray differences in the differences in the lifestyles of males and females.
Dualistic notions = a changing body may be seen as diseased.

Question 12

Oakley? (Feminism)

Answer 12

Comparison of women and children conveys a picture of mutual dependence and interdependence and mutual oppression.
- women and children are interlinked and interdependent. The inequality they face and suffer are similar.
Eg adults speak for children like men speak for women.

Question 13

What is the dependency ratio?

Answer 13

Measures the number of dependants aged zero to fourteen and aged over sixty five, compared with the total population aged fifteen to sixty four.
Insight into the people of non working age, compared with the number of people of working age.

Question 14

Parsons? (Functionalism)

Answer 14

Society can be understood through the organic analogy. Certain age groups have norms and values that threaten social stability. Eg rebellious youth or dependant elderly.
Society is in agreement over social roles. Old people disengage fro society to enable to make space for young people.
Disengagement theory similar to that discussed by cumming and Henry.

Question 15

Cumming and Henry? (Functionalism)

Answer 15

Disengagement theory. The elderly are encouraged to abandon their occupational roles within the specialised division of Labour. So, this process of social disengagement allows the younger population to take their place.

Question 16

Gramsci? (Neo-Marxist)

Answer 16

Discuss the importance of how the bourgeoisie maintain authority. Child benefits and pensions help to maintain false consciousness. So, the elderly and youth do no question their exploitation, so accept things such as zero-hour contracts.

Question 17

Bond eg al? (Marxism)

Answer 17

The Political Economy of Old Age
Uses this phrase to to illustrate the relationship between the Labour market, government policy and social class. They claim that those from lower social classes are more likely to suffer from poverty in old age. Incomes are too low to save for retirement and are less likely to have private pensions. Government state pensions are inadequate. So the elderly are discriminated against.

Question 18

How much is the UK state pension?

Answer 18

£179 per week.

Question 19

Eisenstadt? (Functionalism)

Answer 19

Developed Parsons ideas. Youths need to go from ascribed status of childhood to achieved status of individual adult. Breaking away from the family home is difficult and that youths face an element of inequality. Being part of a youth culture provides a forum for the frustrations. Face inequality due to juggling work, home, education, friends, relationships, social pressure but Eisenstadt suggests this is functional as it is inherently binding in shared interests.

Question 20

Vincent? (Marxism)

Answer 20

Age is a potential source of conflict, exploitation and discrimination.
Vincent links age inequality to capitalism and argues that the needs of the economy which creates age inequality. This is because the emphasis given in capitalism is on working, and those who are retired are seen as less useful.
State pensions create disadvantage because they are too low.
Issue of state pensions is made worse by setting a retirement age. This isn’t because people can’t work but it benefits capitalism as it controls the surplus of Labour and allows companies to sell private pensions.

Question 21

Phillipson? (Marxism)

Answer 21

Argues that capitalism needs to continually renew its workforce. Who may be more productive. The elderly are institutionally marginalised through a process of institutionalised dependency. The elderly form a reserve army of labour.

Question 22

Jones (Marxist)

Answer 22

Grandparents form a reserve army of labour

Question 23

Polhemus (Post modernist)

Answer 23

Focus on youth being a non-homogeneous group shopping at the ‘supermarket of style’. So, no full postmodern explanation of youth offered.

Question 24

Laczko and Phillipson (postmodern)

Answer 24

Researched elderly retirement and found that inequality faced by some people was due to wealth and not ageing itself.

Question 25

Featherstone and Hepworth (Post modernists)

Answer 25

Life course has begun to be deconstructed. The two processes are:

• de-differentiation: the processes by which the differences between the different stages of the life course become less clear
• deinstitutionalisation: the process by which the institutions of society become less closely associated with maintaining different phases of the life course.