Gender differences in key transition phases in family life. Ethnographies of becoming a parent, separation and empty nest

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Marion Müller; Professorin Dr. Nicole Zillien
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2016 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315174848

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

We analyzed three transitions in the family life course and asked about changes in the established gender arrangements in parenthood. The starting point was the results of the previous project "Retraditionalization before birth?". These showed that even before birth, different attributions of self and others to (expectant) mothers and fathers can be observed. Despite gender equality and equal rights, parenthood shapes the lives of women and men in very different ways. The care and employment constellations that arise in the context of gender-differentiated parenthood are well documented and surprisingly stable, especially in Germany. This raises the question of how the different attributions and practices of mothers and fathers are maintained and legitimized in later phases of parenthood. In addition to the transition to parenthood, parental separations and the empty nest were also examined as further crystallization points of family biographies. In summary, three central findings emerged from this comparative analysis: Firstly, an increasing child-centeredness of families at the expense of mothers can be observed. Thus, gender remains the master status in the intra-family division of labor, with the normative demands on mothers even increasing (“intensive mothering”). The mother's primary responsibility for childcare is also only partially renegotiated in later family phases: In the event of a separation, family judges tie in with the gender-differentiating rules that previously applied in families, and the normative requirements of "intensive mothering" continue in the transition to the empty nest. Secondly, the reproduction of gender differences is institutionalized: parental gender differences are supported in the prenatal phase by accompanying institutions such as birth preparation courses. The gender differences resulting from the close intertwining of the parents' lives are also institutionally reinforced in later family phases, e.g. by family courts in the event of separation or by counseling literature in the transition to the empty nest. And thirdly, various legitimizing strategies work against the contradiction between parental gender differences and normative ideals of gender equality: Around pregnancy and birth gender differences are primarily legitimized through biologization; in the case of separation, gendering takes place by recourse to everyday assumptions and personal experiences, for example of the family court judges involved; and in the empty nest, reference is often made to familiarity effects to legitimize parental gender difference.

Publications

• Keine Legitimation durch Familiengerichtsverfahren? Akzeptanzprobleme gerichtlicher Entscheidungen und Konstruktion geschlechtsdifferenter Elternschaft. Soziale Systeme, 22(1-2), 21-60.
  Müller, Marion
  
• Doing Becoming a Mother: The Gendering of Parenthood in Birth-Preparation Classes in Germany. Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, 79-96. Emerald Publishing Limited.
  Müller, Marion; Zillien, Nicole & Gerstewitz, Julia
  
• From nest building to empty nest: transitions in family life. – Posterpräsentation zur Konferenz „Let’s Metaphor and Space“ der Association for Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM 14) der Universität Vilnius, 23.06.-26.06.2021. RaAM 14 Poster presentations
  Marie-Kristin Döbler & Julia Gerstewitz
  
• Geburtsvorbereitungskurse. Handbuch Feministische Perspektiven Auf Elternschaft, 339–346.
  Müller, Marion
  
• Perceptions and practices of gendered parenting in transitional phases of the life course. – Vortrag (online) im „Research Network 13 – Sociology of Families and Intimate Lives“/“Family Formation and Dissolution“ im Rahmen der ESA Conference, Barcelona, 09/2021
  Marie-Kristin Döbler & Julia Gerstewitz
  
• Die Geburt der Familie. In: Krause, Katharina/ Stetter, Manuel/ Weyel Birgit (Hrsg.): Kasualien als Familienfeste. Stuttgart, 186-198
  Müller, Marion & Zillien, Nicole
  
• Essensgelüste in der Schwangerschaft. Wissen, Kommunikation und Gesellschaft, 249-268. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  Gerstewitz, Julia; Müller, Marion; Müller, Sophie Merit & Zillien, Nicole
  
• Relationale Einsamkeit(en). In: Berliner Debatte INITIAL 33 (1), S. 6-18 (ISBN 978-3-947802-95-1)
  Döbler, Marie-Kristin
  
• Ambivalente Freiheiten und Sicherheiten in intergenerationalen Beziehungen: Der exemplarische Vergleich zweier familialer Übergänge, Ambivalenzen in Generationenbeziehungen und Generationenverhältnissen – revisited, Frankfurt: 9. Werkstattgespräch des Interdisziplinären Arbeitskreises Ambivalenz (IAA), 3/2023
  Marie-Kristin Döbler
  
• Family transitions: rethinking care in the face of changing household constellations (Panel Organisation/Chair), Sheffield: Transforming Care Conference 06/2023
  Marie-Kristin Döbler
  
• Family transitions: rethinking care in the face of changing household constellations, Sheffield: Transforming Care Conference 06/2023
  Marie-Kristin Döbler
  
• Geschlechterdifferenzierende Elternschaft – Mütter und Väter im Übergang zum Empty Nest. Gemeinsame Sitzung der Sektionen Europäischen Ethnologie & Soziologie der Görres-Gesellschaft (23.09.2023), Universität Tübingen
  Marion Müller
  
• Bedeutungen von Freiheiten und Sicherheiten. cultura & psyché, 5(2).
  Döbler, Marie-Kristin
  
• Mutterschaft und Vaterschaft in Lebenslaufperspektive – Geschlechterdifferenzen im Übergang zum Empty Nest. Jahrbuch für Europäische Ethnologie, 359-378. Brill | Schöningh.
  Döbler, Marie-Kristin; Müller, Marion & Zillien, Nicole