Pascal Sebille

La famille dans tous ces États : France, Géorgie, Lituanie, Russie

Ce numero special est consacre a l’etude des transformations familiales recentes survenues en France, Georgie, Lituanie et Russie. Celles-ci s’articulent autour de trois ensembles de facteurs majeurs des comportements demographiques : le premier est d’ordre anthropologique et ressort aux relations intra-familiales ; le deuxieme est politique, l’histoire de chacun de ces pays etant particuliere ; le troisieme est economique et social : il contraint ou libere les trajectoires demographiques, etant lui-meme la combinaison de profondes tendances transnationales et nationales. Cet ordonnancement a surtout une valeur heuristique et non demonstrative. Il sert a replacer les etudes qui suivent dans le cadre general des transformations demographiques et offre un regard sur les principales dynamiques observees a partir d’indicateurs synthetiques et de mesures issues des enquetes « Generations et genre » (GGS : Generations and Gender Surveys ) 1 menees entre 2004 et 2006 sur la base d’un questionnaire de reference commun (voir Annexes 1 et 2) dans les quatre pays retenus ici.

Non-realization of Fertility Intentions

This chapter looks at fertility intentions, and more especially the factors linked to their non-realization. In half of all cases, persons who reported intending to have a child, did not in fact have one in the six following years. In many cases, childbearing plans thus appear to be either vague or impossible to realize. Certain circumstances (such as separation) may oblige people to rethink their plans, delay them or abandon them altogether.

Changing Patterns of Transition to Adulthood

While contemporary sociological and demographic studies seem to confirm the idea that the transition to adulthood is occurring at an increasingly older age in France, they have not yet clearly determined what exactly is involved in this “passage” from youth to adulthood. Study of schooling and educational trajectories, family and occupational paths, and analysis of the interactions between them in individual life histories, provides a fresh perspective on transitions to adulthood and the complexity thereof. Completing education, finding a job, moving out of the parental home, entering a union and founding a family—all these events are interwoven in individual life histories, and sometimes challenge the various generational and social rationales. Are we seeing convergence in the ways men and women reach adulthood? Are today’s transition models characterized by greater social diversity than those of the past? This chapter presents an overall picture of the changes in the transition to adulthood that have occurred in France since the generations born in the late 1920s.

Fathers’ and Mothers’ Involvement in Parental Tasks: An Unequal Division

This chapter looks at the division of parental tasks by focusing on the gender relations at play both in the parents’ generation, as they tie in with other social relations approached through demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (age differences between partners, educational level, occupation, income, work time, etc.), and between parents and children. The aim is to verify whether, in addition to gender relations in the parental couple, family composition—number, age and especially gender of the children—has an influence on fathers’ and mothers’ day-to-day involvement in childcare. Less involved in routine daily tasks, fathers still appear to be secondary players in the education and care of their children. Paternal investment varies according to the types of task involved, however (dressing the children, putting them to bed, taking them places, leisure activities and homework), and according to the characteristics of the couple and the children. Questions of identity and gender relations within the family thus explain the persistently wide gender gap in parental involvement.

Une transition vers l’âge adulte divergente en France et en Russie : une perspective générationnelle

Bien que Les systemes politique, economique et social de La France et de La Russie different considerablement, les deux pays ont, depuis le milieu du XX e siecle, mene des politiques demographiques et familiales fondees sur des mesures incitatives. Les trajectoires maritales et familiales de Leurs populations ont des traits communs : Le mariage n’est plus La seule forme d’entree en union et L’âge a La naissance du premier enfant a augmente. Neanmoins, Les apparentes similitudes masquent des divergences dont certaines sont profondes. L’etude du calendrier des premiers evenements de L’âge adulte (achevement des etudes, depart du domicile parental, premier emploi, premiere mise en couple et naissance d’un enfant) et des conditions dans Lesquelles ils se produisent montre comment Le passage a L’âge adulte a evolue au fil du temps en France et en Russie. Elle revele egalement La complexite et La diversite des changements qui ont affecte Les generations nees depuis Le milieu des annees 1930.