‘Doing Gender’ in the Imagined Futures of Young New Zealanders

Abstract

This article analyzes how 100 young New Zealanders (aged 16 to 18 years) imagined their futures, and particularly their future family life. In their written accounts imagining themselves aged 25 to 40 years, the participants drew upon dominant parenting norms in which contemporary gender beliefs positioning men and women as separate and discrete categories of people were implicit. Parenting was typically positioned as concrete and compulsory by young women and as abstract and complementary by young men. Conversely, paid work as abstract, contingent and amenable to interruption was imagined by young women; and as continuous and compulsory by young men. Given these findings we argue young New Zealanders ‘do gender’ in the social relational contexts of future family life and paid work. These findings are situated by the historical antecedents of New Zealand’s current modernized male-breadwinner family ideal, and recent ‘family-friendly’ policies designed to encourage mothers into paid work.

Locality, mobility and labour market citizenship: reflections of Finnish vocational students in social services and health care

“…Therefore, paid work as continuous and compulsory (cf. Patterson and Forbes 2012), as well as an idea of life-long learning, cross over in Juulia's narration. Juulia's classmate Johan also referred to his situation in life when his future plans were discussed.…”

Gendered visions of family life and parenthood among Czech young people: restricted or transforming imaginations?

“…In the Czech context a couple of studies have explored the phenomena with children and younger adolescents (Jarkovská 2013, Haukanes andHeggli 2016), but no research has been conducted with young people in the age group in our study -still in school but old enough to have concrete perceptions of adulthood. A few studies conducted in Western contexts have discussed the impact of a move from a male breadwinner model on young people's visions for their future family, showing that the women demonstrate a stronger sense of individuality and a clearer desire for independence than women of the previous generation (Bulbeck 2012, Patterson andForbes 2012). Czech society, since state socialism, has gone through radical transformations so also here young people's transitions into family and parenthood differ substantially from those dominant in earlier generations.…”

Gendered and Intergenerational Relationalities in Future Orientations: Guatemalan Schoolchildren’s Reports of Gender Roles in Present and Future Households

“…Youth future orientations are also relational. Many scholars focus on "gendered relationalities" as individuals attempt to balance their own future paid and care work in relation to the actions or inaction of their desired or expected partners (Chisholm & du Bois-Reymond, 1993;Haukanes & Hašková, 2020;Patterson & Forbes, 2012). Though some studies show how youth may identify diverse forms of family formation (Forsberg & Timonen, 2018), many find that the majority of youth express heteronormative models of family structure and focus on the relationships between men and women (Haukanes & Hašková, 2020;Haukanes & Heggli, 2016).…”

“…Their studies in Czechoslovakia and Norway have detailed how maternalistic parental leave policies and state disinvestment in child care naturalize or renaturalize gendered segmentation in paid and care work, while promotion of the "universal breadwinner" model, which encourages female employment and men's participation in child care, may denaturalize these structures and promote gender equality. In New Zealand, Patterson and Forbes (2012) argued that the universal breadwinner model replicates inequitable gender divisions of labor by assuming that women continue providing unpaid care work while working intermittently. While youth may view their futures as the outcome of individual choices, they effectively "do gender" by using contemporary gender beliefs to imagine future relationships in ways that naturalize gender segregation in paid and care work.…”