Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:24:54.542Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘I know it exists … but I haven't experienced it personally’: older Canadian men's perceptions of ageism as a distant social problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2015

LAURA HURD CLARKE  and
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO
LAURA HURD CLARKE*
Affiliation:
School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO
Affiliation:
School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
*
Address for correspondence: Laura Hurd Clarke, School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, 156–1924 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, CanadaV6 T 1Z2 E-mail: laura.hurd.clarke@ubc.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines how older men perceive, experience and internalise ageist prejudice in the context of their everyday lives. We draw on in-depth interviews with 29 community-dwelling Canadian men aged 65–89. Although one-third of our participants were unfamiliar with the term ageism, the majority felt that age-based discrimination was prevalent in Canadian society. Indicating that they themselves had not been personally subjected to ageism, the men considered age-based discrimination to be a socially distant problem. The men explained their perceived immunity to ageism in terms of their youthful attitudes and active lifestyles. The men identified three groups who they considered to be particularly vulnerable to age-based discrimination, namely women, older workers and frail elders residing in institutions. At the same time, the majority of our participants had internalised a variety of ageist and sexist stereotypes. Indeed, the men assumed that later life was inevitably a time of physical decline and dependence, and accepted as fact that older adults were grumpy, poor drivers, unable to learn new technologies and, in the case of older women, sexually unattractive. In this way, a tension existed between the men's assertion that ageism did not affect their lives and their own internalisation of ageist stereotypes. We consider our findings in relation to the theorising about ageism and hegemonic masculinity.

Keywords

ageismolder meneveryday lifeinternalised prejudicegendered ageismworkplace discriminationageist stereotypes
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 8 , September 2016 , pp. 1757 - 1773
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acierno, R., Hernandez, M. A., Amstadter, A. B., Resnick, H. S., Steve, K., Muzzy, W. and Kilpatrick, D. G. 2010. Prevalence and correlates of emotional, physical, sexual, and financial abuse and potential neglect in the United States: the National Elder Mistreatment Study. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 2, 292–7.Google Scholar
Adams, W. L., McIlvain, H. E., Lacy, N. L., Magsi, H., Crabtree, B. F., Yenny, S. K. and Sitorius, M. A. 2002. Primary care for elderly people: why do doctors find it so hard? The Gerontologist, 42, 6, 835–42.Google Scholar
Adelman, R. D., Greene, M. G. and Charon, R. 1991. Issues in the physician–elderly patient interaction. Ageing & Society, 11, 2, 127–48.Google Scholar
Arber, S. and Ginn, J. 1991. Gender and Later Life: A Sociological Analysis of Resources and Constraints. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Berger, E .D. 2006. ‘Aging’ identities: degradation and negotiation in the search for employment. Journal of Aging Studies, 20, 4, 303–16.Google Scholar
Berger, E. D. 2009. Managing age discrimination: an examination of the techniques used when seeking employment. The Gerontologist, 49, 3, 317–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowling, A. 1999. Ageism in cardiology. British Medical Journal, 319, 7221, 1353–5.Google Scholar
Brozowski, K. and Hall, D. R. 2010. Aging and risk: physical and sexual abuse of elders in Canada. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 7, 1183–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burgess, A. W. and Phillips, S. L. 2006. Sexual abuse, trauma and dementia in the elderly: a retrospective study of 284 cases. Victims and Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice, 1, 2, 193–204.Google Scholar
Burroughs, H., Lovell, K., Morley, M., Baldwin, R., Burns, A. and Chew-Graham, C. 2006. ‘Justifiable depression’: how primary care professionals and patients view late-life depression? A qualitative study. Family Practice, 23, 3, 369–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, R. N. 1969. Age-ism: another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist, 9, 4, 243–6.Google Scholar
Butler, R. N. 1975. Why Survive? Being Old in America. Harper and Row Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Bytheway, B. and Johnson, J. 1990. On defining ageism. Critical Social Policy, 10, 29, 27–39.Google Scholar
Calasanti, T. M. 2005. Ageism, gravity, and gender: experiences of aging bodies. Generations, 29, 3, 8–12.Google Scholar
Calasanti, T. M. 2007. Bodacious berry, potency wood and the aging monster: gender and age relations in anti-aging ads. Social Forces, 86, 1, 335–55.Google Scholar
Calasanti, T. M. and Slevin, K. F. 2001. Gender, Social Inequalities, and Aging. Altamira Press, New York Google Scholar
Chiu, W. C. K., Chan, A. W., Snape, E. and Redman, T. 2001. Age stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes towards older workers: an East–West comparison. Human Relations, 54, 5, 629–61.Google Scholar
Choi, N. G., DiNitto, D. M. and Kim, J. 2014. Discrepancy between chronological age and felt age: age group difference in objective and subjective health as correlates. Journal of Aging and Health, 26, 3, 458–73.Google Scholar
Connell, R. W. 1995. Masculinities. Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Connell, R. W. and Messerschmidt, J. W. 2005. Hegemonic masculinity: rethinking the concept. Gender and Society, 19, 6, 829–59.Google Scholar
Cooper, C., Selwood, A. and Livinston, G. 2008. The prevalence of elder abuse and neglect: a systematic review. Age and Ageing, 37, 2, 151–60.Google Scholar
Coupland, J. 2009. Time, the body and the reversibility of aging: commodifying the decade. Ageing & Society, 29, 6, 953–76.Google Scholar
Cuddy, A. J. and Fiske, S. T. 2002. Doddering but dear: process, content and function in stereotyping of older persons. In Nelson, T. D. (ed.), Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 3–26.Google Scholar
Cuddy, A. J., Norton, M. I. and Fiske, S. T. 2005. This old stereotype: the pervasiveness and persistence of the elderly stereotype. Journal of Social Issues, 61, 2, 267–85.Google Scholar
Dobbs, D., Eckert, J. K., Rubinstein, B., Keimig, L., Clark, L., Frankowski, A. C. and Zimmerman, S. 2008. An ethnographic study of stigma and ageism in residential care or assisted living. The Gerontologist, 48, 4, 517–26.Google Scholar
Duncan, C. and Loretto, W. 2004. Never the right age? Gender and age-based discrimination in employment. Gender, Work, and Organization, 11, 1, 95–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furstenberg, A. L. 1989. Older people's age self-concept. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work, 70, 5, 268–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, S., Bennett, K. M. and Halford, J. C. G. 2006. A comparison of acute and long-term health-care personnel's attitudes towards older adults. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 12, 5, 273–9.Google Scholar
Ganz, D. A., Lamas, G. A., Orav, E. J., Goldman, L., Gutierrez, P. R. and Mangione, C. M. 1999. Age-related differences in management of heart disease: a study of cardiac medication use in an older cohort. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 47, 2, 145–50.Google Scholar
Granlesse, J. and Sayer, G. 2006. Gendered ageism and looksism: a triple jeopardy for female academics. Women in Management Review, 21, 6, 500–17.Google Scholar
Gullette, M. M. 2004. Aged by Culture. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Gunderson, A., Tomkowiak, J., Menachemi, N. and Brooks, R. 2005. Rural physicians’ attitudes towards the elderly: evidence of ageism? Quality Management in Health Care, 14, 3, 167–76.Google Scholar
Gutman, G. and Spencer, C. 2010. Aging, Ageism, and Abuse: Moving from Awareness to Action. Elsevier, Boston.Google Scholar
Handy, J. and Davy, D. 2007. Gendered ageism: older women's experiences of employment agency practices. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 45, 1, 85–99.Google Scholar
Henkens, K. 2005. Stereotyping of older workers and retirement: the managers’ point of view. Canadian Journal on Aging, 24, 4, 353–66.Google Scholar
Higgins, I., Van Der Riet, P., Slater, L. and Peek, C. 2007. The negative attitudes of nurses towards older patients in the acute hospital setting: a qualitative descriptive study. Contemporary Nurse, 26, 2, 225–37.Google Scholar
Hirsch, B. T., Macpherson, D. A. and Hardy, M. 2000. Occupational age structure and access for older workers. Industrial and Labour Relations Review, 53, 3, 401–18.Google Scholar
Hurd, L. 1999. ‘We're not old!’: older women's negotiation of aging and oldness. Journal of Aging Studies, 13, 4, 419–39.Google Scholar
Itzin, C. and Phillipson, C. 1995. Gendered ageism as a double jeopardy for women in organizations. In Itzin, C. and Phillipson, C. (eds), Gender, Culture, and Organizational Change: Putting Theory into Practice. Routledge, London, 84–94.Google Scholar
Ivey, D. C., Wieling, E. and Harris, S. M. 2000. Save the young – the elderly have lived their lives: ageism in marriage and family therapy. Family Process, 39, 2, 163–75.Google Scholar
Joshi, S. and Flahery, J. H. 2005. Elder abuse and neglect in long-term care. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 21, 2, 333–54.Google Scholar
Kagan, S. H. 2008. Ageism in cancer care. Seminars in Oncology Nursing, 24, 4, 246–53.Google Scholar
Kearney, N., Miller, M., Paul, J. and Smith, K. 2000. Oncology healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards elderly people. Annals of Oncology, 11, 5, 599–601.Google Scholar
Kimmel, M. S. 1994. Masculinity as homophobia: fear, shame, and silence in the construction of gender identity. In Brod, H. and Kaufman, M. (eds), Theorizing Masculinities. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 119–41.Google Scholar
Kimmel, M. S. 1997. Integrating men into the curriculum. Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, 4, 1, 181–95.Google Scholar
Laws, G. 1995. Understanding ageism: lessons from feminism and postmodernism. The Gerontologist, 35, 1, 112–8.Google Scholar
Loretto, W. and White, P. 2006. Employers’ attitudes, practices and policies towards older workers. Human Resources Management Journal, 16, 3, 313–30.Google Scholar
Minichiello, V., Browne, J. and Kendig, H. 2000. Perceptions and consequences of ageism: views of older people. Ageing & Society, 20, 3, 253–78.Google Scholar
Nelson, T. D. 2002. Ageism: Stereotypes and Prejudice Against Older Persons. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, J. F., Pitts, M. J., Huber, F. N., Raup Krieger, J. L. and Ohs, J. E. 2005. Ageism and ageist language across the life span: intimate relationships and non-intimate interactions. Journal of Social Issues, 6, 2, 287–305.Google Scholar
Palmore, E. B. 1999. Ageism: Negative and Positive. Second edition, Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Pasupathi, M. and Lockenhoff, C. 2002. Ageist behaviour. In Nelson, T. D. (ed.), Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 201–46.Google Scholar
Patton, M. Q. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California.Google Scholar
Pompper, D. 2014. Fearing age and aging fears at work. In Pompper, D. (ed.), International Perspectives on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Volume 1: Practical and Theoretical Implications of Successfully Doing Difference in Organizations. Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK, 135–50.Google Scholar
Posthuma, R. A. and Campion, M. A. 2009. Age stereotypes in the workplace: common stereotypes, moderators, and future research directions? Journal of Management, 35, 1, 158–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redelmeier, D. A., Tan, S. H. and Booth, G. L. 1998. The treatment of unrelated disorders in patients with chronic medical diseases. New England Journal of Medicine, 338, 21, 1516–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robb, C., Chen, H. and Haley, W. E. 2002. Ageism in mental health and health care: a critical review. Journal of Clinical Geropsychology, 8, 1, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roscigno, V. J., Mong, S., Byron, R. and Tester, G. 2007. Age discrimination, social, closure, and employment. Social Forces, 86, 1, 313–34.Google Scholar
Slevin, K. F. 2006. The embodied experiences of old lesbians. In Calasanti, T. M. and Slevin, K. F. (eds), Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking. Routledge, New York, 247–68.Google Scholar
Sontag, S. 1997. The double standard of aging. In Pearsall, M. (ed.), The Other Within Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 19–24.Google Scholar
Stevens, M., Biggs, S., Dixon, J., Tinker, A. and Manthorpe, J. 2013. Interactional perspectives on the mistreatment of older and vulnerable people in long-term care settings. British Journal of Sociology, 64, 2, 267–85.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. and Urwin, P. 2001. Age and participation in vocational education and training. Work, Employment, and Society, 15, 4, 763–79.Google Scholar
Walker, H., Grant, D., Meadows, M. and Cook, I. 2007. Women's experiences and perceptions of age discrimination in employment: implications for research and policy. Social Policy and Society, 6, 1, 37–48.Google Scholar
Weiss, D. and Lang, F. R. 2012. ‘They’ are old but ‘I’ feel younger: age-group dissociation as a self-protective strategy in old age. Psychology and Aging, 27, 1, 153–63.Google Scholar