Gendered Life Course Research Articles

Is Everyone “Looking for Love?” Trends in Romantic Relationship Interest Among Singles During COVID-19

Using data from the Dynamics of Social Life During COVID-19 Survey (DSL-COVID), we examine dating and romantic relationship interest among singles amid a global pandemic and loneliness epidemic. This study provides a gendered life course perspective to understanding the heterogeneity of singles’ low romantic interest. We find larger gender differences among the previously married than never married singles. In addition, we document a stronger age gradient for single women than men in low romantic interest. We demonstrate that previously married single men’s romantic interest may be more responsive to loneliness than that of single women. These results suggest that lonely single men express the strongest desires to seek romance, net of controls, while single women express lower romantic interest. Overall, we argue for the possibility that a non-trivial segment of singles may exhibit low romantic interest, and their inclusion is important for social science research on union and family formation.

Education, employment, and care work over adulthood: gendered life course trajectories in Canada and Germany

ABSTRACT This article compares the education, employment, and care work biographical sequences of Canadian and German women and men from late adolescence into mid-adulthood. Through the lenses of comparative gendered life course theory and welfare regime theory, sequence and cluster analyses are used to determine the adult life course sequences of women and men in each country and to assess the extent to which they differ across contexts. The analyses reveal clear gender differences in work–family balance in labour market participation and unpaid care work. Groups also differ strongly on educational attainment, income, and family composition. Comparatively, gender differences are less marked in the Canadian context. These results suggest that differing gendered trajectories result in diverse outcomes depending on the national context, shaping different outcomes for women cross-nationally. Our findings highlight how historical and contemporary country-specific welfare state policies support or hinder women as active and productive members of society.

The Road to Retirement: A Life Course Perspective on Labor Market Trajectories and Retirement Behaviors

Abstract While a prolonged working life has been mainly feasible for people with the most advantageous working careers, knowledge about the barriers for those with vulnerable occupational paths is still scarce. This study explores the conditions for prolonged working life from a perspective on labor market trajectories. Drawing from a gendered life course perspective and that (dis)advantageous tends to accumulate over time, we investigate the opportunity structure for the most disadvantaged workers and which characteristics of labor market trajectories can explain the decision to work longer. To this end, a Swedish longitudinal survey and register data from the Panel Survey of Ageing and the Elderly (PSAE) were used, following people across a substantial part of their working life. With sequence analysis, we identified 5 trajectories that represent typical labor market trajectories from mid-life until retirement age. Our findings showed that labor market precarity in mid-life remained a key characteristic until the expected retirement age, showing both early signs of early labor market exit and a precarity trap into a prolonged working life. These findings emphasize the need to identify at-risk groups early in their careers and that mid-life interventions are needed to prevent involuntary labor market exits and to ensure a sustainable working life. In particular, the need to protect older workers with turbulent or precarious labor market trajectories against labor market risks and retirement schemes that could inadvertently contribute to increased social and economic inequality in later life.

‘Wir hätten keine Zukunft mehr?’ Hedwig Dohm’s Future-Orientated Ideas of Aging in Feminist Writings from the 1900s and her Short Story Werde, die du bist

ABSTRACT Around 1900, the feminist Hedwig Dohm (1831–1919) drew attention to acts of silencing with respect to women in later years. Her essays, such as ‘Die alte Frau’ (1903) and ‘Mutter und Großmutter’ (1912), and her short story Werde, die du bist (1894) highlight how addressing the question of old age requires a transformation of attitudes towards the human. This essay draws on Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy in The Coming of Age (La vieillesse, 1970) to explore the notion of age as a ‘cultural fact’ in relation to Hedwig Dohm’s critical engagement with the marginalization of women. Dohm’s writings — from her own later years — intervene to cast light on cultural double standards concerning a gendered life course; they also engage with the otherness of the body and reflect on ways of keeping the future open to alternative possibilities.

Gendered life courses and cognitive functioning in later life: the role of context-specific gender norms and lifetime employment

With increasing life expectancy, dementia poses an epidemiological challenge. As a cure has not been developed, the investigation into preventive factors becomes pivotal. Previous research emphasizes the cognitively stimulating and socio-emotional benefits of lifetime employment, but research on heterogeneous patterns across social groups and societal contexts remains sparse. Sociological approaches have a promising potential to provide insights into health inequalities and can contribute to the study of this major societal challenge. We investigate the influence of previous employment biographies on cognitive functioning for men and women aged 50 to 75 in 19 European countries, using longitudinal and retrospective information from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We link individual information on employment biographies and cognitive functioning to contextual measures of gender norms, using aggregated agreement rates to both men’s and women’s role in employment and family. We find that previous employment affects cognitive functioning men and women differently. Part-time employment is beneficial for women’s cognitive functioning, but not for men’s. Traditional gender norms are associated with lower levels of cognitive functioning for both genders and moderate the linkage between previous employment and cognitive functioning. In contexts with more traditional gender norms, men’s part-time employment is associated with lower and women’s part-time employment with higher cognitive functioning. We conclude that employment and non-employment participation can, depending on characteristics of individuals and contexts, benefit or hinder the life-course accumulation of cognitive reserve, and those with norm-deviating behaviour are disadvantaged.

INVOLUNTARY JOB LOSS AND GENDERED HEALTH OUTCOMES IN MIDDLE AGE AND LATER LIFE: A LIFE COURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract Job loss is associated with a range of negative health outcomes. However, the causality of job loss and poor health is unclear, due to issues of endogeneity and reverse causality (i.e., adverse health causing job loss). We also need a better understanding of the long-term effects of job loss, and how the life stage in which job loss occurred yields different health outcomes for women and men in later life. To address these gaps, we take advantage of a quasi-experimental setting — the policy-driven layoffs of the State-Owned-Enterprises (SOEs) during the 1990s – mid-2000s in urban China. Using the life history survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2014 and the 2015 wave, we examine the long-term effects of job loss on self-rated health (scored 1 – 5) of individuals in middle age and later life (aged 45+). After controlling for individual childhood health, life-time work history, as well as demographics and socioeconomic status, results from linear regressions show that overall, job loss from SOEs reduces self-rated health by 0.12 (p < .05) for both women and men. However, job loss hurts females’ self-rated health the most when job loss occurred in early-life, a life stage in which childbearing and child caregiving were most intensive (aged 35 or earlier; β = -0.24, p < .05), whereas males’ self-rated health is hardest hit if job loss occurred in mid-life (aged 36 – 45; β = -0.35, p < .01). The results suggest that involuntary job loss produce gendered health outcomes due to gendered life courses.

Transitions to parenthood, flexible working and time-based work-to-family conflicts: A gendered life course and organisational change perspective

Objective: This study investigates how flexitime and flexiplace moderate the consequences of transitions to parenthood for time-based work-to-family conflicts for women and men, and whether the normalisation of their use in organisations additionally contributes to reducing work-to-family conflicts. Background: Although flexible working has been described as a resource for better aligning demands in the domains of work and family, the findings of previous - mainly cross-sectional – research on its consequences for work–family conflict are inconsistent. Method: Individual fixed effects analyses were conducted using linked employer-employee panel data for 1,973 partnered men and 1575 partnered women in 132 large work organisations in Germany. Results: Time-based work-to-family conflicts after transition to parenthood increased for men but decreased for women. This can be explained by women reducing their working hours. However, work-to-family conflicts remained rather stable despite of the transition to parenthood among women who used flexitime. This can partly be explained by their weaker work-to-family conflicts already before the transition as well as to adjustments in work investments being less common among them. There is some evidence that the normalisation of flexitime and flexiplace in the organisation is associated with fewer work-to-family conflicts among women and men. Conclusion: Flexitime seems to be not an additional but an alternative resource to decrease the likelihood of more frequent time-based work-to-family conflicts after transition to parenthood among women. The normalization of flexible working depicts organizational change towards more family-friendliness.

Trajectories, Turning Points, and Interruptions: How Social Inequality Shapes Women’s Later-Life Health

We explore women’s health in midlife and later life at the nexus of structural sexism and the life course perspective, applying Dannefer’s (2018) concept of life course reflexivity, which emphasizes social dynamism with potential health-changing ‘input’ at all ages. We present three types of reflexive changes in the gendered life course that shape women’s health as they age: (1) trajectories of lifetime labor market disadvantage leading to limited health-protective resources in later life; (2) turning points in family structure and need, with draining caregiving demands; (3) interruptions in midlife, such as divorce, erasing the social and economic benefits of marriage. We provide support for critical arguments that theoretical work on the life course has too-often utilized the ‘privileged’ or the ‘male’ life course with insufficient attention to structural sexism as a fundamental cause of women’s health disparities in later life.

Trajectories, Turning Points, and Interruptions: How Social Inequality Shapes Women’s Later-Life Health

As the Hmong community continues to grow and age in the United States (US), mainstream healthcare providers may encounter Hmong older adults who prefer their cultural end-of-life (EOL) care. The challenge for these providers is to offer culturally sensitive EOL care to Hmong older adults within the realm of the Western healthcare system. One factor contributing to this challenge may be the lack of knowledge regarding Hmong older adults’ EOL care preferences. Another is Hmong EOL care is interwoven with care from domains such as culture, religion, and spirituality. The purpose of this study is to garner an understanding of the care preferences of Hmong older adults during the dying process. A qualitative study using inductive content analysis was conducted. Thirty Hmong older adults who reside in Wisconsin participated in semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded and transcribed. Data was analyzed using inductive content analysis by Elo & Kyngäs (2008). The findings revealed that participants preferred care at EOL in the domains: physical, psychosocial, cultural, religious, and spiritual. Physical care included ADL’s while psychosocial care related to communication and companionship. Cultural care included children as caregivers and decision-makers. Religious and spiritual care surrounded Animism and Christian beliefs such as soul calling and prayers. Findings also suggest Hmong older adults’ care preferences as heterogenous and holistic. The findings have implications for the Hmong community and formal care services to collaborate on how culturally sensitive care can be provided to Hmong older adults at end of life.

Performing the Bad Marriage? The Transition from a Troubled to a Troubling Family in the Course of Fault Divorce in the 21st Century

Austrian family law stands out in Europe because, in Austria, fault-based divorce is still legally valid. In these divorces, the suing partner attempts to prove in court that the other partner is at fault for the breakdown of the marriage. Thus, proving in court that a relationship is deficient in order to obtain a divorce is a common family transition practice in Austria. In this contribution, I seek to identify the practices that are associated with fault divorce proceedings and look at how these practices are related to normative and legal ideas of marriage. Based on a qualitative multiple case study, I analysed 17 fault divorce lawsuits filed by heterosexual couples in the 2014–2016 period. To do so, I used situational analysis, trans-sequential analysis, and an analytical framework that was developed within the research project. The spouses’ involvement in the proceedings relied on two main approaches: First, the divorce was justified by an event that was disruptive enough to ‘keep things short’. These narratives were related to the divorce grounds explicitly mentioned in family law. Second, the divorce was justified through narratives of a ‘normal’ marriage that became a ‘bad’ marriage over time. These narratives relied upon characterisations of the other spouse as deficient. These deficiencies were related to normative expectations associated with particular life stages and gendered life course trajectories and mirrored the nuclear family ideal.

Intragenerational occupational mobility of South Korea, 1998–2017: Implications of the gendered life course approach for mobility and inequality studies

This study examined intragenerational mobility in South Korea during the era of increasing inequality by applying a micro-class approach. We improved the methods of studying intragenerational mobility by accounting for non-employment and analyzing gendered age patterns of intragenerational mobility based on a synthetic cohort approach. Our analyses demonstrated the following. First, age patterns of intragenerational mobility greatly differed by gender: Men’s mobility patterns stabilized as they aged, but there was no such stabilization among women. Notably, movements in and out of labor markets were more frequent among women than men. The persistence of patriarchal culture during rapid economic development was responsible for this pattern. Second, intragenerational mobility did not increase in South Korea. This finding is different from that of the United States, where increasing intragenerational mobility partly countervailed the trends of rising inequality for stable intergenerational mobility. This difference warrants reconsidering the role of intragenerational mobility as a link between inequality and social mobility. We discuss the implications of these findings on the relationship between inequality and mobility and gendered life trajectories in South Korea.

A Multilevel Qualitative Perspective to Gendered Life Course, Socialization, and STEM Trajectories Among Emerging Adults in Spain

The present study examines the five principles of the life course perspective—life span development, time and place, agency, timing, and linked lives—and their interplay on the experiences of 26 emerging adults (11 males and 15 females) during their transition from college completion into the STEM labor force in Spain. Findings derived from the in-depth interviews focus on the multilevel challenges these young people face and the set of strategies they develop to overcome them. From a gender perspective, the challenges reveal the structural inequalities (many associated with existing gender stereotypes) that women encounter throughout their educational and professional trajectory. The research also identifies how these women and men display agentic features (at a micro-level) and mobilize different types of networks (at a meso-level) to overcome this adverse structural context, especially, during the economic post-crisis in Spain.

Mortality by education, occupational class and income in Finland in the 1990s and 2000s

Differences in mortality by socio-economic position (SEP) are well established, but there is uncertainty as to which dimension of SEP is most important in what context. This study compares the relationship between three SEP dimensions and mortality in Finland, during the periods 1990–97 and 2000–07, and to existing results for Sweden. We use an 11% random sample from the Finnish population with information on education, occupational class, individual income and mortality (age groups 35–59 and 60–84) (n = 810,902; 274,316 deaths). Cox proportional hazard models produce hazard ratios (HR) for categories of SEP variables in bivariate and multivariate models. Multivariate HRs are smaller than bivariate HRs, but all dimensions have a net effect on mortality. Overall, income shows the steepest mortality gradient: HR = 2.49 among men in the lowest income quintile aged 35–59 in the 1990s. The importance of the various SEP dimensions is modified by gender and age group, reflecting the significance of gendered life course differences in analyses of health inequality. Except for the declining disadvantage of poor men aged 35–59, inequalities are very stable over time and similar between Finland and Sweden. In such studies, the use of only one SEP indicator functions well as a broad marker of SEP. However, only analyses of multiple dimensions allow for comprehensive measurements of SEP, take into account the fact that some SEP dimensions are mediated by others, and provide insights into the social mechanisms underlying the stable structure of inequalities in mortality.

Postretirement work from a gender perspective: in-depth analysis of the Chilean case

ABSTRACT Due to the ever-increasing life expectancy rates worldwide, there has been an emerging need to conduct more research on older adults’ participation in the labor market after reaching the state pension age. This study aims to analyze the factors associated with postretirement work in Chile, a country characterized by a strong persistence of a male-breadwinner model endorsed by deeply-rooted traditional gender roles, and at the same time characterized by a dual-earner model strongly encouraged by a neoliberal system. Relying on a gendered life course perspective and using a nationally representative survey, we conducted logistic regression analyses to explore how a number of cumulative advantages and disadvantages (such as work trajectory, job satisfaction, and caregiving duties) shape working beyond legal retirement age and the intrinsic motivation to continue working among economically active older adults in Chile. One of the main findings of the present study is that intrinsic motivation to continue working was a remarkably significant predictor of postretirement work among older Chilean adults, especially among women. The results also suggest that even though older women are motivated to continue working, the national labor market is unlikely to offer such possibility. The findings of this study have implications for practice in the sense that they demonstrate the imperative need for organizations to focus on intrinsic motivation-related factors in striving to improve employees’ willingness to stay within the company after the state pension age.

A Gendered Life Course Explanation of the Exit Decision in the Context of Household Dynamics

Using a gendered household analysis, we explore the extent to which operating a business upon a flexible basis at specific times in the life course impacts upon an entrepreneur’s exit from their business. Drawing upon UK data and a discrete-time event history model to conduct a life course analysis, we find women caring for young children are more likely to exit given limited returns related to incompatible demands between the time required to generate sufficient returns and caring demands. Limited returns however, were not significant to continuation rates if a male partner contributed a compensatory household income.

Gender differences in retirement in Chile and Uruguay

PurposeThis study compares retirement in Chile and Uruguay, and focuses on current individuals legally entitled to retire, particularly women. The article analyses how labour market and family resources shape the access of women and men to social insurance by investigating the likelihood of retirement after reaching the legal age of retirement.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the Longitudinal Social Protection Survey (LSPS), a biannual or triennial longitudinal survey carried out in six Latin American countries. To study gender differences in the chance of being retired, the study conducts a series of logit regression models to model retirement as a function of labour market and life course conditions as well as providing descriptive and contextual information.FindingsMain findings support labour market explanations of gender differences in retirement. Work experience, human capital and contribution densities largely explain the chances of retirement and economic autonomy among elderly women. Further analysis reveal that they are both less likely than men to retire but also to work in old age, limiting their economic autonomy.Research limitations/implicationsData for Uruguay are recent. To maximize comparison between countries, the paper selects the more recent waves with complete administrative information. As a result, the article uses cross-sectional data that might not capture the accumulation of family resources and could fail to provide a complete gendered life course explanation of current disadvantages faced by women.Originality/valueThe article uses novel data in order to place two Latin American countries within mainstream sociological theories of retirement, thus complementing literature that mainly focuses on European and North-American societies. The paper also documents gender gaps in retirement in two different Latin American societies, one with a traditionally generous public pension system (Uruguay) and one with a largely privately-run contributory system (Chile).

Working Beyond Retirement: Are there Gender Differences in Bridge Employment?

This paper examined gender differences associated with bridge employment using a sample of American workers aged 50 and older. Gender role theory and gendered life course retirement models informed this research. Gender differences and similarities were found in reasons why workers retired from their main job. Logistic regressions indicated that men and women who had health care benefits available at work and men with lower family incomes were more likely to be pursuing bridge employment. Work interfering with family was related to a decreased likelihood of bridge employment for men and women, while work-family synergy was positively related to bridge employment for men. Health variables (self-rated health and mental health) were unrelated to bridge employment. Finally, gender and marital status interacted to predict engagement in bridge employment. Policy implications are discussed including the notion that working beyond retirement represents a new and complex career stage.

SOCIAL CHANGE, SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND COHORTS: CONTEXTUALIZING MEN'S HEALTH IN LATER LIFE

Research links men’s health to their participation in, and access to, social institutions such as marriage, education, and work. However, these institutions have undergone significant social change in the past century, altering their scope and influence on men’s health. We tie together several important concepts from sociology and gerontology to provide an explanatory framework for older men’s differential health profiles within and between cohorts, and over time. First, we address the gendered life course which are the structural and social arrangements that create distinctive experiences over the life course for men and women. Second, we employ the concept of cohort analysis to capture social changes in the institutionalized life course. Finally, we utilize the cumulative dis/advantage framework to help understand within-cohort differentiation in health status as men age. Taken together, we can better understand health, longevity, and disability profiles for older men and how these have shifted over time.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MEANINGFUL LIVED EXPERIENCES RECALLED BY CENTENARIANS

The purpose of the investigation was to conduct a retrospective examination of meaningful live experiences reported by centenarians. Data for this study originated from N=111 centenarians (n = 43 men; n = 68 women) who participated in the Oklahoma 100-Year Life Project. Applying a hierarchical convoy mapping technique commonly used in social network evaluations, IBM/SPSS 23.0 was used to conduct a descriptive analysis of N = 654 recalled lived experiences. The Mini-Mental Status Examination-SF (MMSE-SF; M = 12.55; SD = 1.55) was used to screen all participants for cognitive orientation prior to participation to ensure capacity to consent and intact memory recall. Centenarian participants recalled a total of M = 6.90; SD= 2.61 lived experiences. Centenarian men recognized a significantly greater average number of meaningful experiences (F = (1, 653) = 30.53, p < .01) compared to centenarian women (M = 4.06 vs. M = 3.43). A good proportion of centenarians (40.50%) acknowledged meaningful events as occurring during young-adulthood. However, the timing of such events occurred significantly earlier (F = (1, 357) = 7.37, p < .01) on average for men compared to women (M = 27.60 yrs. vs. M = 34.11; 1.53). Further analysis revealed that over half of lived experiences considered meaningful among centenarians proportionally fit into three domain types: Family-oriented (19.5%); Work/employment related (18.7%); and Marriage (13.7%). Results have implications relative to understanding how variation in meaningful lived experiences among centenarians. Further evidence of a gendered life course in human longevity will be highlighted.

Personal identity development in cultural context: The socialization of master narratives about the gendered life course

The present studies focused on the role and socialization of biographical master narratives – cultural narratives that prescribe the types and ordering of events that should occur in one’s personal life identity narrative – by focusing on adolescent and emerging adult gender identity development. We employed a combined explanatory and triangulation mixed methods design. Study 1a (n = 414) was a survey study examining the expected biographical master narrative events for men and women, and the content of master narrative deviation and conformity in an emerging adult sample. In Study 1b (n = 14) we interviewed participants from Study 1a about their conformity and deviation narratives, as well as their socialization experiences regarding gendered biographical master narratives. In Study 2 mothers and adolescents (n = 11 pairs), engaged in conversation about expected life course events, as well as a follow-up interview about their conversation. We first found that there are more gender differences in the personal experiences of conformity to and deviation from master narratives compared to the expectations of the life course (Study 1a). Second, deviating is related to more engagement in identity processes (Study 1a). Third, emerging adults report contradictions in retrospective reports of socialization messages regarding expectations (Study 1b), a finding confirmed in a discourse analysis of mothers and their adolescents (Study 2). Overall, across the studies, we see that (a) adolescents and emerging adults are engaged in a delicate balance of negotiating between various cultural and familial messages, as well as personal experiences, about gender identity particularly in regards to gender equality and, (b) there is a complex relation between socialization messages about gender equality that may make some biographical master narratives about the expected life course events for men and women more resistant to change.