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Demography - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Improved legal rights of women (eg right to vote)
      - Easier access divorce through availability of Legal Aid (1949) - women are less financially dependent on husband to get a divorce
      - Availability of contraception and abortion in the 1960s as a well as a more recent decline in stigma towards abortion (evaluation - Texas state outlaws abortion in 2022)
      - Sarah Harper argues that the most important reason for the decline in fertility rate is the education of women as it changes their mindsets
        
        educated women have more career opportunities and therefore are more career-focused, delaying childbearing to pursue a career
        
        2012 1/5 of women aged 45 were childless (this is high!)
        
        + Also argues that smaller families are becoming the norm and larger ones more deviant
      - Improved conditions in the workplace - 1970 Equal Pay Act ensured equal pay for men and women for the same role and 1975 Sex Discrimination Act outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status from employment, education, and training
    - - Harper argues that a decline in the IMR leads to a decline in the fertility rate
        
        more infants survive past their first birthday so parents do not need to reproduce to 'replace' the child, therefore the birth rate decreases
      - 1900 the UK IMR was 154 where in 2012 the UK IMR was 4
      - Why has the IMR declined since 1900?
        
        1900-1950 improved housing and sanitation reduced the spread of infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis and measles
        
        1950-now medical improvements such as mass immunisation against diseases, use of antibiotics for children, improved midwifery services and access to pre and post natal clinics
    - - Children used to be financial assets as they could go out to work to earn a wage, however legal changes and changing social norms mean that children are now an economic liability
      - Legal changes such as child labour laws banning the employment of young children and compulsory school leaving age at 18 mean children cannot work and earn a wage (dependent on parents- childhood topic link: Is this oppressive?)
        
        2015 UK compulsory school leaving age raised to 18 and housing benefits removed for under 25s as part of the Conservatives' austerity measures in the UK extended parents' financial responsibility for children
        
        1870 Forster's Education Act - basic compulsory schooling of all children between the ages of 5-12 in England and Wales
      - Changing social norms around what children have a right to expect from their parents mean parents may feel pressured to pay for university, housing, or a car for their children
      - These legal and social changes place financial pressure on parents, meaning they may be less inclined to have a large family or even to have children at all
      - 2022 average cost of raising a child to 18 for a couple is £160,000
    - - The family unit and wider society is becoming increasingly child centred, meaning the needs of children and prioritised over the needs of adults; this could involve organising time or planning activities around the needs of children in the family
      - Increased child centredness means that childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period in a child's life
      - The increased child centredness of society means that family and becoming smaller, with parents having fewer children so they can invest more time, attention, and resources into the few- a shift from quantity to quality
      - ONS Cohort Analysis 2012 found women born in the 1930s had approx 2.4 children by 30 whereas women born in 1980s had approx 1 child by 30
      - Fertility rate is now 1.7 (low) - needs to be around 2.1
  - - - Families have become smaller since parents are having fewer children
      - This means that women are less burdened with childcare are can go into full-time paid employment, leading to an increase in dual-earning couples, which is common in many professional couples
    - - Short term low fertility rate decreases the 'burden of dependency' since there are less children, who make up a large proportion of the dependent population, which the earnings, savings, and taxes of the working population go towards
      - Long term low fertility rate increases the 'burden of dependency' since the small dependent population of children have grown up and are now working age so the working population is small relative to the size of the dependent population (eg elderly people)
    - - Low fertility rate changes which public services are needed
        
        eg) fewer schools and children's health services
      - Low fertility rate changes government decisions including which policies they put forward
        
        eg) government may decide to implement smaller class sizes in response to having fewer children in the population rather than decreasing the number of schools
- - - - Moore emphasises the biomedical model of health
        
        argues ill health is caused by biological factors (eg unhealthy diet, smoking, sedentary lifestyle) rather than social factors (eg stress at work)
        
        argues death rate has decreased due to better treatment and prevention (eg vaccines, research, technology)
        Evaluation - (Marmot Review, 2010) shows poverty and deprivation leads to premature deaths; this rejects the biomedical model of health and shows that low income and bad working conditions plays a key role in premature deaths
      - Tranter attributes over 75% of the decline in the death rate 1950-1970 to a fall in deaths from infectious diseases (eg typhoid or measles)
        
        deaths from infectious diseases have fallen due to mass immunisation from 1950s, antibiotics, vaccinations
      - diseases of affluence had replaced infectious diseases as main cause of death by the 1950s (eg heart disease and cancer)
        
        society gets wealthier and can afford treatments - people live longer - diseases effecting old people are more prevelant
    - - McKeown attributes half of the decline in the death rate is due to improved nutrition, particularly in deaths from TB
        
        improved nutrition improves immune system so people have higher resistance to infection and increased change of survival if they do get infected
        
        Evaluation - McKeown does not explain why deaths from measles and infant diarrhoea increased while nutrition improved
    - - Harper argues the greatest fall in death rates is due to decreased numbers of smokers, rather than medical improvements
        
        1930s-50s people believed smoking was good for you and was recommended by doctors
        
        Evaluation medical improvements such as research into the effects of smoking revealed it caused ill-health, therefore medical improvements are the root cause of the fall in death rates
      - Harper also suggests we are moving to an 'American health culture' where lifestyles are unhealthy but are prolonged by expensive medication and treatment - links to diseases of affuence
        
        obesity-related deaths have been kept low due to drug therapies
    - - NHS set up in 1948 gave the public access to free healthcare
        
        eg) maternity services, blood transfusion, improved medication, research, technology
        
        heart by-pass surgery among other things has reduced deaths from heart disease by 1/3
      - In the 20th century, central and local governments became more effective and had power to pass and enforce laws that improve public health and quality of the environment
        
        improved housing - better ventilated and less overcrowded
        
        Clean Air Acts reduced air pollution
        
        laws combatting the adulteration of food and drink
        
        1922 Milk and Dairies Act - pasteurisation of milk (safer)
        Evaluation - (2010) 31,400 deaths due to air pollution
    - - less manual jobs (eg mining)
        
        smaller families reduces transmission of infection
        
        improved education on hygiene, food safety, illness (eg via NHS website)
        
        higher incomes - buying 'superfoods', gym membership, etc
      - National and global death rate increased during the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020-2022)
- - - - In modern society, life course stages are fixed and your role in production forms your identity (eg childhood, adulthood, elderly)
        
        Roles are allocated based on age, creating age-related identities (eg pensioner, worker)
        
        Old people do not have a role as a 'worker' in the labour force so have a 'pensioner' identity, characterised by dependence and powerlessness - this is called 'structured dependency'
        
        Structured dependency means old people are economically dependent on their families or the state (eg health and social care)
        
        This dependent status and exclusion from production is a stigmatised identity and old people often experience ageism
    - - In postmodern society, the fixed, orderly stages of the life course are broken down and consumption forms your identity
        
        eg) children dressing like adults, getting married later, retiring earlier are evidence of the disordered life course stages
        
        Individuals have greater choice of lifestyle as it is not longer defined by age
        
        Consumption forms your identity, rather than production - old people become a market for 'body maintenance' products which help them to 'stay young' - this forms their identity
        eg) gym membership, anti-ageing creams, cosmetic surgery
        
        Hunt (2005) argues this means we can choose a lifestyle and identity regardless of our age; it does not determine who we are or how we live
        
        There is less ageism in postmodern society due to: positive media images of the elderly and an emphasis on surface features (old people can change how they look to change their identity)