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Age Theories, Statistics, When someone treats you unfairly because of your…
Age Theories
Functionalist
Pilcher - Childhood to adulthood, allows people to move from one stage to another harmoniously, mechanism of social integration 
Cumming and Henry - Way old people treated benefits society. The elderly are encouraged to socially disengage from occupational roles, disengagement allows young people to take their roles
- Minimum damage to social order and allows economic efficiency by specialised division of labour
- They argue that because men and women fulfil different social roles (instrumental and
expressive), the process of disengaging from these roles as you get older will be different.
Parsons 1997 - Uncritical view of the ageing process, age is important for the stability of society and age acts as a smooth transition between parts of your life, age didnt use to matter because the family determined status, no longer true as families now more socially dispersed and mobile
Eisenstadt - Different generational groups pass down social norms/values through socialisation and cultural transmission from the elderly to the young
Feminist
- Women are apart of the reserve army of labour, less money to save for a pension
Arber and Ginn + Brownmiller (Radical)
- Elderly Women treated differently to elderly men, have to 'preserve' their attractiveness to get the same status and respect as old men
Cosmeticisation 'Aesthetics of youth'
Itzin - Claims that older women are often doubly devalued by society when they get old because their status is devalued after their menopause (because they can no longer have children) as well as after retirement age. - Effects position in employment (liberal)
- Gender pay gap increases as you age
- Womens 'role' as care givers means less money for pensions, experience more poverty when their older
- Less women rights, less representation
- Females live longer, more downward mobility
Marxist
- During economic growth young and elderly are the first to receive jobs, however first to lose them during economic recession (Inequality will always exist in a Capitalist society because of the boom and bust)
Neomarxist Althusser stated that child benefits and state pensions maintained false class consciousness and was a tool used by capitalism, it is apart of the ideological state apparatus and prevents people seeing the full exploitation
Neomarxist Phillipson (1982)
- Elderly people are seen as burdens for capitalist societies, this is because capiatalism encourages hard work and therefore as they arent working they lose their status.
Interactionist
Ray and colleagues - Negative labels effect how old people view ageing themselves, can worsen mental health.
Media reinforces negative stereotypes, by elderly people being labelled as ill, unproductive or 'no filter'
Goffman - We have public and personal personas, elderly people still feel like teenagers but put on a public mask to act within social norms to prevent negative labelling
Self fulfilling prophecy - Exposure to ageism, people change their behaviour due to beliefs of old people being incapable
e.g baby talk and infantilized language, older people accept they are no longer independent adults
e.g pity of medical professionals, conveys that older people are helpless, so they become more dependent on others
e.g negative stereotyping of youth causes more deviance as they internalise labels by teachers
New Right
People need to take the initiative and prepare for their own futures and set up pensions, not the government's job to financially support people by welfare.
Statistics
Employment/Work
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State of Ageing 2020
- 1 in 10 50 - 69 low job satisfaction
- Effort/Reward balance low
- No job training
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Wood et al 2010
- 74% more applications for ethnic minority names needed to have same opportunity as white people
General Stats
500,000+ aged 90+, 70% women
Age UK 2018
- 60% older people, agree ageism exists in everyday older peoples lives
- 53% once you reach old age you're treated as a child
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Poverty/Wealth
Age UK, Poverty In Later Life (2021)
- Pensioners in poverty 18%m 14% increase since 2015
- 38% Private tenants
- 36% Council housing
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State of Ageing 2019
- 16% of those 65+ are in relative poverty
- Single women + Ethnic minority more likely
- 33% Black / 14% White
- 1.1m just above poverty line
Health
Lancet Report Study
Intersectional approach to Age, 14 out of 17 ethnic minorities greater health inequality compared to white (Long term conditions and mental health) Greater for Bangladeshi/Irish Traveller women
COVID 19 Age and Gender
- Over 80 dying from COVID-19 x70
- More underlying health problems
- Lack of social interaction effects mental health
Decline in surgery rates, increases in cancer/diabetes etc.
Media
Lee et al 2007
15% of adverts showed elderly people (65+) 90% were positive showed active, healthy and the 'golden agers'
When someone treats you unfairly because of your age, can include how older people are represented in the media, has wider impact on societies attitudes
e.g Being refused a doctors appointment because you're 'too old'
Postmodernism
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- Older people vote seen highly as their more likely to vote, effects of disregarding older people has bad impact
- 'Grey pound' Money that old people contribute to the economy.
- People no longer judged by their chronological age but their lifestyles and choices
- Older people becoming more tech savy
- Consume Youth - Age Avoidance e.g Tiktok users
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Blaikie 1999
Consumer culture has challenged stereotypes of age.
- He suggests that UK society has undergone a social transformation from social experiences based on collective identities originating in social class and generation to an increasingly individualized and consumerist culture in which old age can be avoided by investing in a diverse choice of youth-preserving techniques and lifestyles.
Polemus
(21st Century) Young people shop in a global supermarket, construct identities from many sources
- Globalisation and multiculturalism in Britain has meant old age and young people is less predictable
- Fragmented society, some have long retirement, some endure poverty
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Phillipson disagrees with Althusser , pensions are inadequate (2010) and leave them reliant on state welfare, reinforcing their low status, elderly can then be scapegoated for society's problems.
- Treats the elderly as an homogenous group (assumes their all the same)
- Deterministic, assumes all older people want to disengage from society
- Norms/values can be passed on without issues of loneliness
- Critics of functionalism point out that disengagement often leads to the neglect of the experience, skills and talents of older members of society which could still be of great benefit to society.
- Retirement from work and society is often not voluntary. (Disability?)
- This disengagement also has negative consequences for the self-esteem of the elderly in terms of ageism
- Feminist explanations tend to over-state the influence of patriarchy and
may neglect reasons such as poverty.
- Feminists also assume the experience of girls and women are universal. However wealth and social class can help mitigate the effects of patriarchy.
- Feminists may underestimate the pressure men are under to cosmeticize which suggest that this is a link to Capitalism rather than the patriarchy.
- Social action studies also suggest that women choose to voluntarily cosmeticize. It may not be shaped solely by the stigma of getting old.
- Deterministic, assumes old/young cant reject labels
- Little about positive labelling
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Many ethnic minorities and women are part of reserve army of labour, less opportunity to save up money for a pension (Disadvantaged in their working life)
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When someone treats you unfairly because of your age, can include how older people are represented in the media, has wider impact on societies attitudes
e.g Being refused a doctors appointment because you're 'too old'
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