Structuration of the life course: Some neglected aspects

North American life course research has typically focused on micro/meso level contexts, and how these shape men’s and women’s lives. There has been less attention to societal laws and policies in analyses of gendered life courses. In contrast, Europeans have typically neglected gender and interdependence among lives, concentrating on analyses of how the state shapes trajectories. We argue that the consideration of demographic context and the role of laws and policies can help bridge the continental divide in life course approaches. In focusing on these two macro-level structural factors, it is unavoidable to acknowledge that families are critical mediators between society and individuals. We show that demographic shifts are creating new late life potential and new opportunities for intergenerational connections. Demographic change also increases differences between men’s and women’s networks and lives. We discuss so-called intergenerational policy regimes and show how they strengthen autonomy versus interdependence in families. Our review of legal changes reveals gender convergence in life structuring. Yet, we also observe strong contrasts between how men and women actually live their lives. Most likely, new understanding of this complex picture can be found in the intersection of macro-and micro perspectives. It is more important than ever that we bridge a “continental divide” between research communities, across countries and methodological camps

Understanding the effects of Covid-19 through a life course lens

The Covid-19 pandemic is shaking fundamental assumptions about the human life course in societies around the world. In this essay, we draw on our collective expertise to illustrate how a life course perspective can make critical contributions to understanding the pandemic’s effects on individuals, families, and populations. We explore the pandemic’s implications for the organization and experience of life transitions and trajectories within and across central domains: health, personal control and planning, social relationships and family, education, work and careers, and migration and mobility. We consider both the life course implications of being infected by the Covid-19 virus or attached to someone who has; and being affected by the pandemic’s social, economic, cultural, and psychological consequences. It is our goal to offer some programmatic observations on which life course research and policies can build as the pandemic’s short- and long-term consequences unfold

Childlessness and parenthood in two centuries: different roads - different maps?

The article focuses on findings that were replicated across several countries and considers their relevance for future older adults. Key findings are that (a) childlessness makes more of a difference in men’s than in women’s lives, (b) never-married women are a childless category with particularly favorable characteristics, and (c) childless people face support deficits only toward the end of life. In future cohorts, the authors expect to see (a) clearer contrasts between childless men and fathers, given indications that men are being more strongly selected into parenthood; (b) diminished differences between childless women and mothers, given the improved conditions for combining work and care; (c) fewer differences in reliance on formal support between older people with and without children, given the increased levels of education and material resources; and (d) that involuntary childlessness will be all the more distressing, given that a chosen life path has been blocked.