Abstract:

According to Dictionary.com, it define human aging as “discrimination against persons of a certain age group.”

Within the above contest, one can begin to ask a rhetorical question that who will not get old? Why older persons are discriminated or age restrictions to some of the vital things we do in the society? The science of gerontology is vast and could only be treated positively when its impact is well understood. The impact of age discrimination is retrogressively demeaning to the victims especially the baby boomers who were veterans and had sacrificed for the so called freedom we enjoyed today.

In establishing the impact of gerontology and ageism, I dedicated my study to carry out a research that on age discrimination and was able to establish some facts about ageism and its effect in our society. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of age discrimination on the aged emotions and capability. In ascertain this study, we deployed questionnaires to the aged old in Lagos Nigeria (sample population) where we got feedback from veterans and other retired fellows staying in old people’s home. About 95% of our sample population confirmed that they felt cheated and undignified after they were discriminated at in various aspects of their lives, even after retirement, while 3.8% disagreed not to have experienced age discrimination and 1% prefer not to comment on it. Details of the survey shall be given in the body of this article.

In this article, the first and second paragraph introduced the timing and age bracket that falls victims of ageism -especially the aged ones. When it is likely to start experiencing age discrimination which sometimes is not limited to aged but also the under-aged who are rated as incompetent to carry out or participate in an aged rated activities. The third paragraph underscored how ageism affect the baby boomers and Gen x irrespective of their fitness and how millennial also face age discrimination in recruitment and political eligibility.

Further to this, work of Robert Butler – the first researcher on ageism was mentioned with our team research at Regina Mundi Ages Home in Lagos and other field survey that were carried out in paragraph seven and eight. The article pointed out different countries acts that protect age discrimination in paragraph nine while the general effect of ageism in our society with our recommendation on how to stop ageism were cited in paragraph ten and eleven respectively.

References:

[1].     Brian J. Worsfold 2011 Acculturating Age: Approaches to Cultural Gerontology, by University of Lleida press.

[2].     Malcome Sargent 2011: Age discrimination: Ageism in Employment and Service Provision. Gower Publisher UK

[3].     Susan M. Hiller, Georgia N. Barrow 2011. Aging, the Individual, and Society. Published by Cengage Learning Stamford CT 06902 USA.

[4].     Toni M. Calasanti, Kathleen F. Slevin 2001Gender, Social Inequalities, and Aging published by Altamira press Oxford England.

[5].     Ursula A. Falk, Gerhard Falk 1997 Ageism, the aged, and aging in America: on being old in an alienated society by Thomas Publisher

[6].     http://www.onenigeriablog.com/2016/09/older-men-and-women-stand-up-against.html

[7].     http://www.agediscrimination.info/international-age-discrimination/nigeria

[8].     https://nigerianobservernews.com/2016/10/taking-a-stand-against-ageism/#.WJiPgvkrLIU

[9].     www.dictionary.com

[10].  http://www.population.gov.ng