Ulrike Zartler

Reassembling Families after Divorce

Since the end of the twentieth century, divorce has been increasingly regarded not as a discrete event disrupting family life, but rather as a complex process that reshapes and restructures relationships between family members (Amato, 2000; Smart, 2004). Divorce results, in this conception, not in the dissolution of family life, but rather in a reorganization and transition of the family system. Marital disruption is regarded as a complex process that begins while the couple lives together and ends long after legal divorce is concluded. Research based on this model shifts from a household perspective to a perspective of family relationships and a long-term perspective of family dynamics. The process of reorganization implies changes for the whole family and the macro systems surrounding the family (Cowan and Hetherington, 1991; Fthenakis, 1995).

Parental constructions of masculinity at the transition to parenthood: the division of parental leave among Austrian couples

Men and masculinity are considered a key factor in changing gender inequality at the transition to parenthood. Prior research on gendered division of parental leave concentrated on fathers’ perspectives. This paper includes perspectives of fathers and mothers who make use of parental leave in different ways and asks how masculinity is jointly constructed, how these constructions are linked to the use of parental leave, and if and how they are oriented towards hegemonic masculinity. The analysis is based on 44 qualitative interviews with 11 Austrian couples before and after birth when decisions concerning parental leave were made. Our case reconstructions reveal that parents considered parental leave a central element of masculinity as long as it suited fathers’ needs and circumstances permitted. The decisions for sharing parental leave were father-centred as both partners valued father’s leave higher than mother’s.

Children’s imagined future families: Relations between future constructions and present family forms in Austria

Existing research on children’s depictions of their future families has primarily focused on gender aspects. In contrast, this study highlights children’s family structures as an arena of differentiation. The research is based on qualitative interviews with 50 Austrian 10-year-old children and relies on a social constructionist approach. Results indicate considerable differences with regard to family structure: Children living in non-nuclear families emphasised their wish to correspond to the norm, presented less detailed ideas about future partnerships, ascribed more agency to children and constructed parental roles differently from those living in nuclear families. However, distinctions were less pronounced in terms of gender roles.

Key practices of equality within long parental leaves

The birth of a child often reinforces an unequal division of employment and care work among heterosexual couples. Parental leave programmes that foster long leaves tend to increase this inequality within couples. However, by investigating a particularly long parental leave system, we show that specific practices enable parents to share care work equally. Our ethnographic study includes interviews with heterosexual couples, observations in prenatal classes and information material available to parents. Specific sets of practices – managing economic security, negotiating employment, sharing information with peers and feeding practices – involved parents who shared care work equally and parents who divided care work unequally. Contingent on specific situated practices, the arrangement of care work shifted in an equal or unequal direction. Even within long parental leaves, equality between parents was facilitated when economic security was provided through means other than income, when work hours were flexible, mothers had a close relationship to work, information on sharing equally was available and children were bottle-fed. Consequently, an equal share of care work is not the effect of solely structural, individual, cultural or normative matters, but of their entanglement in practices.

Partnerbeziehungen zwischen Flexibilität und Stabilität

In den letzten 30 Jahren wurde in Wissenschaft und Politik intensiv uber den Wandel von Lebensformen diskutiert (Nave-Herz 2015; Schneider 2001, 2011; Wagner und Valdes Cifuentes 2014). Festgemacht werden die Veranderungen hauptsachlich am stetigen Anstieg nichtehelicher Lebensgemeinschaften, der Entwicklung der Eheschliesungs- und Scheidungsraten sowie dem steigenden Erstheiratsalter. Dabei wird sowohl auf die groseren Handlungsspielraume in Bezug auf Lebensformen und Lebensmuster als auch auf vermehrte Gestaltungs- und Entscheidungszwange hingewiesen (Kruger et al. 2013; Kuhnt und Steinbach 2014).

Machen Kinder glücklich

In Osterreich haben sich, ebenso wie in vielen anderen europaischen Landern, die Geburtenraten in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten auf einem niedrigen Niveau eingependelt (Prskawetz et al. 2008; Sobotka 2011). Dies liegt am Ruckgang der Familien mit drei und mehr Kindern ebenso wie am steigenden Anteil von Frauen und Mannern, die kinderlos bleiben (Beaujouan et al. 2016; Miettinen et al. 2015).

How Children See Their Families

This contribution focuses on children’s conceptualizations of families and family forms by considering studies that include children’s own perspectives. The article gives an overview on children’s concepts about families in general and their configurations of their own families. It is shown how children regard different family forms and how they perceive aspects of family time and everyday family life.

Rezension zu: Hans Bertram, Birgit Bertram: Familie, Sozialisation und die Zukunft der Kinder. Opladen u.a.: Verlag Barbara Budrich 2009.

Hans und Birgit Bertram prasentieren einen umfassenden Einblick in eine Vielzahl an Themen der Familien- und Kindheitsforschung und bieten einen fundierten Uberblick uber die Sozialisationsforschung. Sie halten ein faktenreich unterlegtes Pladoyer fur eine kritische Betrachtung der klassischen Sozialisationstheorien und pladieren fur eine sozial-okologische Sichtweise der Familienentwicklung. Das Buch liefert wichtige Argumente fur eine neue Perspektive in der – seit Jahrzehnten gefuhrten – Debatte uber die Zukunft der Familie und uberzeugt trotz einiger formaler Schwachen als umfassendes, gut lesbares Werk, das auch in der Lehre sinnvoll einsetzbar ist. Es fasst wissenschaftliche Debatten und Erkenntnisse der vergangenen Jahrzehnte zusammen und erganzt so auch die offentlichen Diskussionen.