Social Divisions: Age

Outcomes for the lesson

• Define age as a social division• Refer to examples of how the concept of age

changes depending on culture• Analyse evidence either positive or negative to

support the concept of age inequality and ageism

Age

• Who is classed as ‘old’ • Who is classed as ‘young’• how do we stereotype old people?• What behaviours do we associate with old

people?

Media and the portrayal of old age

Old age today:

• Video time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHTxFV_LEMc

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYzLsNiAt00

• And comments

• Ageism report and worksheet

But once upon a time…Real world examples

• “Old age is viewed as respect. The able, younger generation feels duty bound to care for those people as a token of appreciation because what the younger generations have now is a result of elderly peoples’ hard work”

(East African cultures)

Cultures celebrating ‘Old Age’ The ‘crone’ in British paganism was celebrated as the wise woman and closest to the great spirit

Hwangap: Korea celebration for people who reach 60 and 70Celebration of the passage into old age

Other Examples

In Indian traditions, elderly are celebrated as the head of the family.

Within Native American families, it's common for the elders to be expected to pass down their learnings to younger members of the family

Group discussion time

• What has changed?

A natural division?

• Bradley (1996) ‘age is the neglected dimension of inequality’.

• What do you think he means?

Bradley 1996

• Elderly people are one of the most impoverished groups

• In Britain many elderly are seen as lacking the ability to contribute meaningfully to society

Getting you thinking- current states

• Task 2- Handout- page 368

Age and other divisions

• Age combines with other social divisions such as ethnicity and gender causing even more inequality and social divisions

• Oppenheim and Harker (1996)- 73% of males received company pensions, yet only 68% of full time female workers did, and 31% of part time female workers did!

Check learning

Feed forward to next lesson

• Independent gathering of examples around:• Is ageism still alive today?• Examples of divisions in income, housing,

education

Todays Lesson: 23/09/14

• Outcomes:• Must: list evidence to back up an age divde• Should: explain this evidence• Could evaluate if there is a age division for

both young and old people

Recap

• Spend 10 minutes going over your notes from last lesson on age

Evidence of divisions: Health

• Age discrimination in health care• Activity 1: BBC news article • Pull out the supporting evidence of age

discrimination in the above article

Housing

• Page 2-4 1. Consider the case studies on Page 2-3 and

answer the question listed2. What was the conclusion of the case studies?3. Explain the evidence that backs up the idea

that there is age discrimination in housing

However

• Are all Elderly people living in such circumstances?

• Activity: read the ‘GREY POWER’ article and answer the questions

Examples: Owning own house (ONS 2013)

Discrimination in younger people

• The Guardian article:• What evidence is there that there is a

discrimination against younger people?

Activity: ageism experiences by young people

Page 5• What does the graph show

in terms of ageism and youth?

• What were the conclusions of these results?

Making a plan

• For your project

Referencing