Drawing on in-depth interviews with 34 women and men of the working sandwich generation (WSG) in Flanders, this chapter presents a taxonomy of nine coping strategies that the WSG uses to balance intergenerational care with a job: an acceptance strategy, a boundary management strategy, a help-seeking strategy, a planning strategy, a governance strategy, a self-care strategy, a time focus strategy, a values strategy and a super-sandwich strategy. Individuals of the WSG do not use just one strategy, but combine different strategies simultaneously or consecutively. Moreover, different strategies are also strongly linked to each other so that there is a certain degree of 'overlap'.
Sandwich generation (SG) women face the double burden of caring for both their own children, and possibly grandchildren, as well as caring for their elderly relatives. Conflicts and pressures tend to arise and the book provides a range of evidence from the European Union (EU). The concluding part of the book summarises the main results and draws conclusions on the research based on the viewpoints presented in the previous chapters. The chapter presents recommendations for employers, career coaches and policy-makers for supporting SG women in working life.
People with a dual care task at home, taking care of a younger and an older generation family member, are often called the sandwich generation (SG). They are more often women than men, at high risk of burnout or withdrawal from the labour market. This book provides international comparisons and offers tools for working sandwich generation (WSG) women and their supervisors for managing challenging situations in working life. The book is multidisciplinary and combines theories with qualitative and quantitative empirical research, practical tools and case studies. This chapter introduces the themes and relevant concepts of the book and presents its structure. SANDWICH GENERATIONAlthough there are different definitions for the sandwich generation (SG), it is usually referred to as individuals or couples within the age group 45 to 65 who, in addition to their work activities, also take care of their own (young or growing up) children together with the care of their ageing parents. (Bronselaer, 2016) Another definition states that 'the sandwich generation refers to individuals who, by dint of circumstances, find themselves in the position of being caregivers for their young children, and/or adult children and care for one narrowing in some countries, although it remains robust in others (European Commission, 2020;Zamarro, 2020). Where in 2000 in EU27 48.8% of the male population between 55 and 64 years was working compared to 27.8% of women, the employment rate had risen to 69.6% for men and 55.4% for women by 2019. Participation in the workforce by older workers is expected to keep increasing substantially for most countries to an average of 72% in 2070. Even for people between 64 and 74 years of age, projections foresee an employment rate of up to 20% in 2070 (European Commission, 2020). This can indicate that in the future more grandparents will be participating in the workforce. Zamarro (2020) suggests that workers who are grandmothers, therefore familiar with the challenges of balancing work and care
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