sociology age inequality perspectives

Parsons

ocial roles associated with age groups are vital for the smooth running of society:  

Childhood: 

• Children go through the process of socialisation, where they learn society’s norms and values. This teaches them what is acceptable which is important for society to function  

Adolescence:  

• Young people form independence from parents. Need to provide for themselves as adults, teaching them the skills required to leave home and work

• Youth rebellion is positive as it helps young people to become more independent from their parents. Youth culture is the bridge between childhood and adulthood 

Old age:  

• Elderly are less fit, therefore less able to perform at work, therefore gain a new role to help grandchildren when retired 

eisenstadt

Beliefs on youth:  

There is a important transitory stage between childhood and adulthood for the following reasons:  

• Youth allows for the creation of their own personal identities and mechanisms of self regulation and self control  

• Youth is a time when individuals learn their own role in society: they move from ascribed roles to achieved roles 

Breaking away from the family can seem stressful, but youth culture provides a likeminded group of people that acts as a coping mechanism:  

• This helps set children apart from parents  

• It also provide them with a model of how to behave during this period 

Roszak

• A generation gap has developed between the old and young in the form of counter cultures or rebellious subcultures 

• These can be functional in that they unite young people regardless of social backround (e.g. class, gender and ethnicity) and reinforce the differences i roles performed by young, old and middle-aged people in society  

• Murdoch & McCron reinforced this by arguing that youth culture has helped society to regenerate itself by developing a set of new norms and values which have replaced the old, outdated ways of seeing the world associated with the older generation 

cummings and henty

• The marginalisation of the elderly has positive benefits for society  

• The ageing process and the social reaction to it is part of a ‘mutual process’ in which the elderly are encourage to abandon their occupational roles within the specialised division of labour  

• The ageing process inevitably leads to social incompetence which means that as people age, they use ego energy i.e. they lose their vitality as their health deteriorates 

If the elderly continue to work it creates a number of negative consequences such as:  

• Their work is not carried out well, this compromises the effective functioning of the economy  

• Secondly, the elderly people block opportunities for younger people by continuing to occupy key positions. Society therefore stagnates due to the lack of fresh and innovative new ideas of younger generations 

• Thridly, working beyond on age whereby the elderly can comfortably perform their jobs leads to frustration and fatigue for early people.  

• Therefore, elferly people themselves would benefit from disengagement.

Marx

oung people are beneficial in 2 ways: 

• A reserve pool of labour which is easily hired and fired as required by capitalism, such as cheap labour can also help keep wages low  

• More enrgetic and provide new skills (that gain can be exploited by capitalist owners of businesses)  

The elderly are treated as:  

• Retire when they are no longer useful to the capitalist system  

• Act a free childcare providers enabling young members of society to work in capitalist businesses (which ultimately benefits the ruling class) 

phillipsons

• The elderly have been used as a reserve pool of labour that is easily exploitable for ruling class profit 

• The logic of capitalism, which is about exploiting workers and consumes for profit, is incompatible with the needs of the elderly  

Why are they seen as a burden?: 

1. They are perceived to have a lack of disposable income and money to spend  

2. They aren’t as productive as a young person which capitalists resent  

3. They are seen as a drain on resources (in terms of welfare and health provision) 

finn

Youth training schemes – 1 to 2 year courses giving 16 year olds experience on low wages  

This led to the exploitation of young people by:  

1. Restricting the number of people joining trade unions (not workers so therefore cannot join, also to young) 

2. Used as a cheap source of albour, because they were only paid small allowances under these schemes  

3. This, in turn, depressed wages of all young people, by ensuring competition  

4. Reduced embarassing unemployment statistics by dealing with the surplus of labour  

weber

  

Concepts of economic and non-economic elements of inequality in society:  

Class – young and elderly have a lower market position than middle aged people  

Status – younger workers and elderly may experience a lower status in scoiety because of age discrimination  

Party (power) - refers to idea that groups may form in order to gain power and thus promote their own interests 

barron and norris

• ‘dual labour market’ theory:  

• Primary labour market – well paid, secure jobs, promotion  

• Secondary labour market – poorly paid, insecure jobs, no promotion  

• The youth and elderly are more commonly found in secondary labour market due to lower cultural status  

rex and tomlinson

• The young and the elderly make up the marginalised and impoverished in society (and therefore the underclass)  

• Children are part of the underclass as some face poverty in the UK 

• Also, young people (16/24/ generation X) also constitute part of the underclass due to higher rates of unemployment 

Why is this Weberian? 

• Highlighting the lack of power and low status position of the underclass in the contemporary UK (reflecting lower life chances and increasing marginalisation in society) 

Macdonald

‘the professional project’  

• The ability to build trust in professions take time which young people do not have. 

• This then becomes a ‘project’ as occupational groups continuously struggle to enhance their professional status  

How do employees use their older age and experience? 

1. Asserting expertise in an attempt to ensure that younger staff cannot make claims on their are of work and therefore monopolising the market 

Linda Gannon - psychological health of women

Science in male centred (androcentric) as male bodies are norm and females as deviation

• science sees the ageing of men and women as biologically determined; however Gannon says this is patriarchal

• her proof is science says women are more likely to have osteoporosis but she says it is due to women not being in as many sports

Linda Gannon - the menopause and male power

• the menopause presents women as a disease as the menopause is a disease due to oestrogen deficiency which is then increased with HRT

• however, even though men loose their hormones, that is not treated or seen as an issue or disease

• this disadvantages women as it increases male power, advances a patriarchal society and discuss the real causes of problem of ageing

Arber

ageism and sexism combine to make he lives of older women more difficult, see in the differences of both at old age:

1. women live longer than men so more likely to care for them, then left alone

2. as a result, women are more likely in care homes as well as poverty

   1. this will continue as old married men will continue to marry younger women

firestone

gender inequality and division of labour comes from women’s biology. this is seen with:

1. women’s burdens such as childbirth and menopause

2. women’s dependence on men during childbirth and nurturing leads to patriarchal oppression

3. interdependence of mother and child and their dependence for men leads t unequal power and therefore a power psychology