Gunhild O. Hagestad

Roads Less Taken Developing a Nuanced View of Older Adults Without Children

This article provides the rationale for doing research on childlessness and parenthood in late life. Childless older adults have been rendered invisible in the social scientific literature. A central goal of this issue is to make them visible and to expose unstated assumptions about normal adult life. Parenthood emerges as a key organizer of the life course and a major factor in social integration. Because the childless tend to be conceptualized as “the other,” focusing on them teaches lessons about the dangers of dichotomous thinking, that is, overlooking diversity and assuming deficiency. Studying older adults without children reveals the necessity of considering life pathways over time and of putting lives in a historical context.

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 mens than in womens 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.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.

Structuration of the Life Course: Some Neglected Aspects

North American life course research has typically focused on how micro/meso level contexts shape men’s and women’s life paths and interdependent lives. How laws and policies result in gendered lives has received little attention. European work has analyzed how the state shapes trajectories, but has neglected gender and linked lives. Considering demographic context, laws and policies can help bridge the continental divide in approaches, as such perspectives see families as key mediators between society and individuals. Demographic shifts are creating new potentials for intergenerational connections, but increase differences between men’s and women’s lives, while policy changes increase gender convergence. Understanding of this complex picture must be sought in the intersection of macro-and micro perspectives. We must bridge research communities, across borders and methodological camps. North American life course research has typically focused on how micro/meso level contexts shape men’s and women’s life paths and interdependent lives. How laws and policies result in gendered lives has received little attention. European work has analyzed how the state shapes trajectories, but has neglected gender and linked lives. Considering demographic context, laws and policies can help bridge the continental divide in approaches, as such perspectives see families as key mediators between society and individuals. Demographic shifts are creating new potentials for intergenerational connections, but increase differences between men’s and women’s lives, while policy changes increase gender convergence. Understanding of this complex picture must be sought in the intersection of macro-and micro perspectives. We must bridge research communities, across borders and methodological camps.

Aging: It’s Interpersonal! Reflections From Two Life Course Migrants

We start with the observation that aging gerontologists often engage in two distinct discourses on aging-one public and one private. This separation entails othering, which reproduces agism and stigma. Based on personal experience, insight from colleagues and writers, and concepts from symbolic interaction perspectives, we argue that becoming old to some degree involves becoming a stranger. Before reaching old age, both of us have been in the position of strangers due to social experiences that left us off the line or on the margins. Examples are crossing social borders related to nations, class structures, gender, race, health status, and generations. Our stories illustrate how aging is more than personal. It is interpersonal-shaped by social history, policies, interdependence in relationships, and the precariousness of old age. Such phenomena often show sharp contrasts in the interpersonal worlds and social experiences of women and men. Reflecting on our own journeys as life course migrants leaves us acutely aware of both the social problems and potential promises of aging.

Studying Age Across Borders

When I was approached about writing this piece, there was talk of a “senior in the field.” My first reaction was, “A senior? Me?” There are two bases for my puzzlement. The first is an experience many of us share: problems with accepting and internalizing such labels as “old, elderly, senior.” A few years ago, I was in a long security line at an airport. People were tense, worried about missing their flights. A security officer was trying to speed up things and loudly announced, “The shoes coming through on the belt belong to the elderly woman.” I looked around, but saw no older woman! I would like to believe that today I would respond differently. But reality is that it takes a while to live with such labels. We are not ready to become geronts, presumably the objects of gerontology. I return to that topic below.

Social Dynamics of the Life Course: Transitions, Institutions, and InterrelationsSocial Dynamics of the Life Course: Transitions, Institutions, and Interrelations, edited by HeinzWalter R. and MarshallVictor W.. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 2003. 306 pp.

effects of divorce in the parental generation spreading to persons whose parents do not divorce—hardly a positive trend. In spite of my disagreements with Wolfinger, I consider this book to be a major contribution. It answers some important questions, and it raises many others. It is not the last word on the divorce cycle, but it is seminal and is likely to stimulate a lot of additional research. It is full of interesting speculations—such as that a decline in the stigma associated with parental divorce accounts for the decline in the divorce cycle—that could fruitfully be investigated. No doubt there are other important, but fairly narrow topics that could usefully be given the kind of book-length treatment that Wolfinger has given the divorce cycle. This book sets a good example.