Inequalities in Old Age: An examination of age, sex and class differences in a sample of community elderly

This paper examines the distribution of personal resources - financial, social, health and psychological - between age cohorts, sex groups and social classes in a random sample of community elderly. As expected, the young elderly, males and those from middle-class backgrounds have a disproportionate share of three out of four of these resources, but for social support the balance of advantage is reversed. When age, sex and class are combined to yield eight subgroups, younger working-class males consistently rank high on all resources and older working-class females consistently rank low. Older middle-class females rank low on all resources other than on close friends.