Life Course Of Women Research Articles

The transition to parenthood among the second generation: Evidence from Sweden, 1990–2005

Abstract We examine the transition to parenthood of the second generation, i.e., the children of immigrants, in Sweden 1990–2005, from a gender perspective using a longitudinal data set constructed from register data maintained by Statistics Sweden. The impact of education, labor market attachment, income, and national background on having a first birth is estimated for second generation men and women and contrasted to that of the native Swedish-born population and immigrants belonging to the 1.5 generation. We find that there is an adherence to a common pattern for the transition to parenthood that supports the notion of integration and adjustment among the second generation, via the 1.5 generation, to a Swedish childbearing norm, most likely supported by institutional factors and working through economic incentives. Labor market attachment and income are positively associated with the transition to parenthood, irrespective of gender and generation. Individuals outside of the labor force have reduced propensity to become first-time parents, especially students. Integration is more comprehensive among the second generation than for the 1.5 generation. Impacts are generally more articulate for women, which reflects that childbearing intervene differently with men's and women's life courses.

Moving Away from Marital Violence: Nepali Mothers Who Refuse to Stay

During research on changes in the reproductive desires of young Hindu Nepali mothers in the Kathmandu Valley, I encountered a theme of suffering or hardship, dukha in Nepali, in women's responses. My research, and thus my questions, were not designed to evoke stories of suffering; they asked about marriage, the differences between being a daughter in one's natal home and a wife in one's husband's home, women's experiences of pregnancy, of birth, and of the period of seclusion after birth known as sutkeri, and the transition to becoming a mother-in-law. A rich body of literature on South Asia describes how a woman's status fluctuates dramatically over the life course (Bennett 1982; Das 1992; Das Gupta 1995; Lamb 2000), and I was examining how changes in caste, gender norms, and family residence patterns were adding complexity to this model of women's life course trajectories.

Socio-economic disadvantage and body mass over the life course in women and men: results from the Northern Swedish Cohort

Obesity and body mass in adulthood relate both to current and to childhood socio-economic status, particularly in women, but the underlying life course processes are not known. This study aims at examining whether the life course socio-economic status-body mass association in women and men is explained by the cumulative risk or adolescent sensitive period models whether associations are similar at different life course stages; and whether health behaviours explain the associations. A total of 476 women and 517 men participated in this 27-year prospective cohort study (participation rate 93%). Body mass index was assessed at the age of 16 and 43 years and self-reported at the age of 21 and 30 years. Information on socio-economic status by own or parental (age 16 years) occupation, smoking, snuff, alcohol, physical activity and diet was collected at each age. In women, cumulative socio-economic status and socio-economic status in adolescence were related to body mass index at the age of 16, 21, 30 and 43 years and to the 27-year change in body mass, independently of health behaviours and for adolescent socio-economic status also of later socio-economic attainment. Associations were generally stronger for body mass at older age. In men, associations were mostly non-significant, although health behaviours contributed strongly to body mass. In women, both the sensitive period (in adolescence) and cumulative risk models explain the socio-economic-body mass link. Efforts to reduce the social inequality in body mass in women should be directed at the early life course, but focusing on unhealthy behaviours might not be a sufficient approach.

WORK, LIFE COURSE, AND GENDER

Since Norwegian family-friendly policies are gender neutral while the division of labour in families is gendered, some argue that the generous state support for families may end up upholding the status quo; it may perpetuate the existing inequitable division of labour between mothers and fathers in the home and in the labour market in which some women take long maternity leave and work part-time. Since many gender equality measures are intended to increase the percentage of women in male-dominated occupations and positions, they are aimed at occupations with upwardly mobile trajectories. A typological distinction between ‘career’ and ‘non-career’ work is made in the analysis of biographical cases of men and women in two different organisational settings. Their thoughts and actions in relation to their occupational trajectories over the life course are examined in different layers of context in order to understand how a complex set of factors affects ways of adjusting to the phase of being parents of young children. The paper concludes that the relationship between gender equality measures and family-friendly policies is not necessarily characterised by tensions, but must rather be considered in relation to a complex set of circumstances in men's and women's life courses that include family, education, and occupation as well as organisational settings that for the many do not involve career jobs.

High School and Women's Life Course: Curriculum Tracking, Race/Ethnicity, and Welfare Receipt

Life course scholarship considers how institutional contexts, such as schools, influence adolescent development. Likewise, educational scholars examine how high school experiences influence nonacademic life course outcomes. This study connects these disparate research areas to determine how high school curricular tracks relate to racial/ethnic differences in welfare dynamics. Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) data, the author finds that college preparatory coursework provides greater benefits to White women than to Black and Latina women in helping them avoid early welfare receipt. This benefit accrues largely through lowering their chances of dropping out of high school. Theoretical implications and relevance to the current policy environment are discussed.

Fatigue, Worry, and Fear—Life Events in the Narratives of Women With Fibromyalgia

In this article we explored narrated life stories of 20 women with a long history of fibromyalgia to reach a deeper understanding of how people interpret the causes and consequences of different life events and illness experiences. Based on narrative analysis, we identified three model narratives that illustrate the different life courses of women with fibromyalgia. In addition, we described a counternarrative that questions fibromyalgia as a chronic disease. In this narrative study, we give insights to the invisible symptoms and unheard experiences that are associated with fibromyalgia and to the ongoing discussion on the etiology and maintenance of fibromyalgia.

Exploring Weathering: Effects of Lifelong Economic Environment and Maternal Age on Low Birth Weight, Small for Gestational Age, and Preterm Birth in African-American and White Women

White women experience their lowest rate of low birth weight (LBW) in their late 20s; the nadir LBW for African-American women is under 20 years with rates rising monotonically thereafter, hypothesized as due to "weathering" or deteriorating health with cumulative disadvantage. Current residential environment affects birth outcomes for all women, but little is known about the impact of early life environment. The authors linked neighborhood income to a transgenerational birth file containing infant and maternal birth data, allowing assessment of economic effects over a woman's life course. African-American women who were born in poorer neighborhoods and were still poor as mothers showed significant weathering with regard to LBW and small for gestational age (SGA) but not preterm birth (PTB). However, African-American women in upper-income areas at both time points had a steady fall in LBW and SGA rate with age, similar to the pattern seen in white women. No group of white women, even those always living in poorer neighborhoods, exhibited weathering with regard to LBW, SGA, or PTB. In contrast, the degree of weathering among African-American women is related to duration of exposure to low-income areas and disappears for those with a life residence in non-poor neighborhoods.

Gender and the Health Benefits of Education

Does education improve health more for one sex than the other? We develop a theory of resource substitution which implies that education improves health more for women than men. Data from a 1995 survey of U.S. adults with follow-ups in 1998 and 2001 support the hypothesis. Physical impairment decreases more for women than for men as the level of education increases. The gender gap in impairment essentially disappears among people with a college degree. Latent growth SEM vectors also show that among the college educated, men's and women's life course patterns of physical impairment do not differ significantly.

Lifecourse influences on women's smoking before, during and after pregnancy

The concept of the socioeconomic lifecourse is increasingly informing understanding of the social patterning of cigarette smoking. We investigated lifecourse influences on (i) women's smoking status (smoker/non-smoker) before pregnancy and (ii) quitting in pregnancy in the UK Millennium Cohort study. Our analyses included conventional measures of the socioeconomic lifecourse (woman's childhood circumstances, education, current socioeconomic circumstances) and measures of her domestic lifecourse (age of becoming a mother, current cohabitation status), as well as parity (first/subsequent child). In analyses of quitting, we also included pre-pregnancy cigarette consumption. Our study underlined, firstly, the importance of lifecourse disadvantage. Those experiencing greater disadvantage with respect to their childhood circumstances, education and current circumstances were at greater risk of being a smoker before pregnancy. A disadvantaged domestic lifecourse - earlier entry into motherhood and lone motherhood-further increased the risk. Poorer childhood circumstances, educational disadvantage, poorer current circumstances and early motherhood also significantly increased the odds of quitting in pregnancy. Secondly, parity was a major predictor of smoking behaviour. First-time mothers had higher odds both of smoking before pregnancy and quitting in pregnancy. The effects of parity were independent of women's lifecourse. Our study supports tobacco control policies which recognise and address inequalities across the lifecourse. However, our study suggests that the dye is not irrevocably cast by social disadvantage: first pregnancy uniformly increases the chances of quitting. Interventions which help smokers having their first baby to quit have an important part to play in promoting maternal and child health.

Pension Reforms, Working Patterns and Gender Pension Gaps in Europe

European pension reforms are dominated by the principles of privatization and individualization. Privatizing and individualizing pension entitlements call for a redefinition of the responsibilities of states and individuals. Moreover, statutorily introducing individualization calls for equal opportunities to be guaranteed. However, the implementation of equal opportunities is a long way off because pension‐determining factors are still subject to gender distinctions, among other things. Gender distinction is inherent in life courses as well as in welfare arrangements. Welfare arrangements determine the legitimate reasons for gaining pension rights, how the measures of different entitlements are interrelated and which factors hamper a person's ability to fulfil the pension norm. This article analyses the link between welfare arrangements and women's life courses for a better understanding of the gendered norms of pension entitlements by focusing on gendered wages and life expectancies, gendered working patterns, and the connection between care and pensions.

USING A REPRODUCTIVE LIFE COURSE APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND CONTRACEPTIVE METHOD USE IN AUSTRALIA

This paper examines contraceptive method use at different stages of the reproductive life course. Previous research on contraceptive practice in developed countries typically applies age as a proxy for reproductive history. While age is an essential and useful life course measure for understanding contraceptive use, investigations of contraceptive practice should also consider parity and fertility intentions, as they may be more accurate measures of reproductive life course stage. Analysis is based on data collected in the 2005 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, a nationally representative sample of women of reproductive age (18-44). For women at risk of pregnancy, the most commonly used methods are easily reversed methods such as the oral contraceptive pill (30%) and condom (23%), medium-term methods such as the intrauterine device and implantation (5%) and permanent methods (7% tubal ligation and 9% vasectomy of partner). Logistic regression models are used to investigate the use of four popular contraceptive methods by parity, age and fertility intentions controlling for socio-demographic factors. The main findings indicate that the use of these methods varies substantially by the stage of a woman's reproductive life course: age, parity and fertility intentions are all associated with method use.

Social Change and the Timing of Family Transitions in West Germany

This article addresses the timing of family transitions in early adulthood. Theoretical and empirical analyses are used to investigate the appropriateness of the notions of destandardization, differentiation and individualization for characterizing recent changes in West German life courses. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) are used for a comparison of (West German) birth cohorts and the respective timing of moving out of the parental home, first marriage and first parenthood. These transitions have, in fact, undergone a certain temporal destandardization. However, the results suggest that this destandardization is limited to certain dimensions, is clearly socially structured and is in part brought about by changing structural conditions. Furthermore, these changes in timing can be partly explained by differentiation according to education. Individualization, too, is only applicable to a certain degree and in particular to women's life courses.

Sexual violence at first intercourse against women in Moshi, northern Tanzania: Prevalence, risk factors, and consequences

To explore the relationship between sexual violence at first intercourse and later sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Moshi, Tanzania, we analysed data from a representative household survey that comprised face-to-face interviews with 1,835 women and tests for six STIs on biological samples from 1,235 of these women. Overall, 10.9 per cent report forced first intercourse and 15.3 per cent report unwanted first intercourse. Unadjusted analysis shows a relationship between forced first intercourse and STIs (OR: 1.72, 95 per cent CI: 1.19–2.51). Life-course variables mediate this relationship. Significant predictors of having an STI include older age, more sexual partners, and a partner who has children with other women. Coerced first intercourse appears to be associated with changes in the life course of women and with a heightened risk of contracting an STI.

Intimate Partner Violence among Midlife and Older Women: A Descriptive Analysis of Women Seeking Medical Services

Although intimate partner violence (IPV) may occur throughout a woman's life course, there has been a paucity of research on the experiences of victimization among midlife and older women. This article examines both the prevalence of IPV among a sample of women ages 50 to 64 (N=620), who were recruited at an emergency department and primary care clinics in an urban setting, and the associated factors for the subsample of these women who reported IPV (n=34). More than 5 percent of the women reported experiencing some form of abuse by their partners within the past two years. Bivariate analyses comparing victims and nonvictims indicate that higher proportions of women who reported abuse had received public assistance and had a recent history of homelessness. In addition, victims of IPV reported higher frequencies of HIV risk factors than did nonvictims, including having a partner who insisted on sex without a condom, having sex with a man they knew or suspected was an IV drug user, and experiencing symptoms or receiving a diagnosis or treatment for a sexually transmitted infection. Significantly higher percentages of abused women reported being tested for HIV and being HIV seropositive. Implications of the findings for social workers are discussed.

Gender Arrangements and Pension Systems in Britain and Germany : Tracing change over five decades

This paper studies the modernisation of gender arrangements and the restructuring of pension systems in the United Kingdom and Germany since the 1950s. We firstly aim to pinpoint the time when pension programmes were apt components of the ’strong breadwinner model’. Secondly, we explore the assumption that pension systems are tools of stratification, by comparing the ways in which the constraints and incentives of these pension systems have been in line with typical life courses of women. Our paper argues that the constraints and incentives of pensions have altered quite significantly over time and questions whether they have appropriately been characterised as components of strong breadwinner models over the long term. In the UK the pension system only supported the strong breadwinner model until the mid-1970s, whilst the German system never fully supported it. In addition, it is shown that the impact of pensions on women’s behaviour is relatively limited. At times, women’s lives were in accordance with the male breadwinner model, and they suffered high poverty risks despite having potential access to a more modern pension regime; during other periods, their employment choices were at odds with the strong directives issued by pension regulations to stay at home. This demonstrates the importance of taking other factors, such as cultural influences and other societal institutions into account when exploring the impact of social policies on citizens’ lives; but it also poses the question of whether pensions are really important building blocks of the breadwinner model.

Gender issues and family concerns for women with international careers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how female expatriates face gender stereotyping and discrimination in their home and host countries and how they reconcile their conflicts between home and work.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data were collected via interviews with 21 female expatriates in Western multinational corporations with offices in Taiwan.FindingsAlthough gender stereotyping and discrimination are not significant phenomena in home companies, this result needs to be cautiously interpreted because the informants do not have complete information, and faultily presume that overseas assignments are under the protection of anti‐discrimination laws. In the host countries, we found that gender stereotyping and discrimination might be intra‐ethnic rather than nonexistent. Moreover, a woman's life course influences her efforts to build overseas careers, and expatriate women who are married and raising children have to utilize various other kinds of social support in order to balance family and job responsibilities.Research limitations/implicationsSince, this research is conducted in the Taiwan offices of the multinational corporations, it could not directly examine the overseas posting policies and procedures of home companies and thus is limited in its explanation of this perspective. Owing to the small number of cases in this research, the further research on ethnic differences in sex discrimination among female expatriates is needed.Practical implicationsThis research could serve as a useful source for women interested in pursuing international careers and for companies and governments seeking to help such women.Originality/valueBy thoroughly re‐examining the previous research and bringing new perspectives to the future study of female expatriates, this research comes to some un‐conventional findings.

Is there really a ‘J‐shaped’ curve in the association between alcohol consumption and symptoms of depression and anxiety? Findings from the Mater‐University Study of Pregnancy and its outcomes*

To determine the nature of the association between alcohol consumption and symptoms of anxiety and depression in women. Prospective cohort study of women (n = 4527) who received antenatal care at a major public hospital (Mater Misericordiae Hospital) in South Brisbane between 1981 and 1984 and who have follow-up data on alcohol use, depressive and anxiety symptoms over a 14-year period. At the 5-year follow-up there was a 'J-shaped' association between alcohol consumption and both symptoms of depression and of anxiety. However, at the baseline assessment and the 14-year follow-up alcohol consumption was linearly and positively associated with depressive symptoms with increasing prevalence of symptoms with greater consumption. At the 5-year follow-up the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among those who were abstainers at both baseline and 5-year follow-up was similar to that among those who had been previous drinkers and then become abstainers (P = 0.67). Similarly, the prevalence of these symptoms was the same at the 14-year follow-up comparing those who had been abstainers at baseline, 5-year and 14-year follow-up to those who had previously consumed alcohol but were then abstainers. The nature of the association between alcohol consumption and symptoms of depression and anxiety may vary across their life course in women. Previous drinkers who become abstainers do not appear to be at any higher risk of symptoms of depression or anxiety compared to those who always abstained, suggesting that increased symptoms in abstainers at age 30 is not due to 'sick quitters'. The association of high alcohol consumption with symptoms of depression and anxiety may be confounded by low income and smoking.

Women's Perceptions of Reproductive Health in Three Communities around Beirut, Lebanon

The aim of this study was to elicit definitions of the concept of reproductive health among women in three communities around Beirut, Lebanon, as part of the reproductive health component of a larger Urban Health Study. The communities were characterised by poverty, rural-urban mobility and heterogeneous refugee and migrant populations. A random sample of 1,869 women of reproductive age completed a questionnaire, of whom a sub-sample of 201 women were randomly selected. The women's understanding of good reproductive health included three major themes, which were expressed differently in the three communities. Their understanding included good physical and mental health, and underscored the need for activities promoting health. Their ability to reproduce and raise children, practise family planning and birth spacing, and go through pregnancy and motherhood safely were central to their reproductive duties and their social status. Finally, they saw reproductive health within the context of economic status, good marital relations and strength to cope with their lives. These findings point to the need to situate interventions in the life course of women, their health and that of their husbands and families; the importance of reproduction not only from a health services point of view, but also as regards women's roles and responsibilities within marriage and their families; and taking account of the harsh socio-economic conditions in their communities.

Regional Difference in Women's Life Course and Causal Mechanisms

The concept of the cohort has been broadly adopted in social science because scholars emphasize that those who experience the same era at the same life stage have similar life histories and social attitudes. However, how life is lived and social attitudes are influenced by the region in which one lives or has lived. In this study, the authors examined regions as providers of both opportunities and constraints for human beings and comparatively analyzed the life courses of two groups of women in their 30s, mainly based on data from questionnaire surveys and some interviews. One group was Kanazawa respondents who had graduated from S High School in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. S High School has a few rival schools in terms of students' performance and continuing to higher education. Teachers eagerly recommended that students enter the faculty of education at local national universities, because places at national universities are highly valued in the region and the faculty of education is easier to enter than other faculties. Apart from which schools to attend, continuing to higher education immediately after high school graduation is given great importance. Thus female students were advised to take the entrance exams to a junior college specializing in nursing just to be on the safe side, irrespective of whether they hoped to be nurses. This teacher-driven educational tracking was criticized by most of the Kanazawa respondents, and some graduates of S High School were troubled by the gap between the jobs suitable for their major in university/college and the ones they really wanted. But it is also true that a respectable number of female graduates became teachers, nurses, or civil service employees, due to the career guidance of S High School. It is well known that women in these occupations tend to continue to work after marriage and childbirth, supported by fairly good employment conditions. In addition, married couples tend to live with the husband's parents and share housekeeping and childcare in Kanazawa. Therefore the labor force participation rate of married Kanazawa respondents was rather high. The other group was Yokohama respondents who had graduated from K High School located in the city of Yokohama. K High School ranks with S High School in student abilities, and most students of K High School embark on higher education after graduation. In K High School, there was no substantial intervention of teachers when students considered careers after the high school graduation. Located in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Yokohama respondents had many alternatives of universities/colleges to enter. They did not place much importance on the possibility of obtaining practical knowledge and skills for employment in choosing a university/college in which to enroll, rather it was naive interest in a specific field of study or the fame of the university that counted. Yokohama respondents also had many options when they sought a job after graduation from university/college. In job hunting, they valued the corporate culture and large firms, rather than the job description itself. Yokohama respondents mostly followed their life course based on their own volition. However, image-led job hunting with little practical knowledge sometimes resulted in job turnovers due to the gap between hopes for and the reality of employment. Over 90% of married Yokohama respondents were members of nuclear families and this made it difficult to balance employment and childcare. Long and stressful commuting was also a hurdle for Yokohama respondents who worked outside the home, in contrast to the Kanazawa respondents' short commutes by car. The high labor force participation rate of married Kanazawa respondents was not the result of a reasonable and purposeful determination with consideration for the actual conditions of the local labor market.

The Interplay between Women's Life Course Work Patterns and Financial Planning for Later Life

In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between women's life course work patterns and their financial planning for later life, we examined data from semi-structured interviews with retired women (n = 28) aged 59 to 92. The majority of women disrupted their careers at some point in time, for an average of 14 years, primarily for child-rearing responsibilities. We found that financial preparedness and income security in later life are structured by women's life course work patterns. However, individuals also have the ability to shape their own lives and many of the women took the initiative to acquire financial knowledge irrespective of their work situation. Financial-planning advice that participants gave to future generations of older women was also explored and centred on the importance of saving, avoiding debt, maintaining financial independence, and planning ahead.