Gendered expectations of the biographical and social future: young adults’ approaches to short and long-term thinking

ABSTRACT

Numerous studies have found that although young adults are arguably less constrained by gendered norms and expectations than previous generations, they have nevertheless continued to imagine their biographical futures in highly gendered ways. In this paper I draw on an analysis of 28 in-depth interviews in which 16 women and 12 men (aged 18–34) were asked to discuss their expectations for both the biographical and social future. The results of this study largely confirm the findings of previous scholarship, with young women often viewing childbearing and caring responsibilities as compulsory, while young men largely viewed these commitments as complementary to their chosen careers. This paper extends existing findings in this area by examining, firstly, whether these perceptions of the biographical future are mirrored in the participants’ views of the long-term, social future, and secondly, what implications such views may have when they are extended into this register. In so doing it ultimately finds that the gender norms that shape young adults’ expectations for their own futures are echoed in their outlooks upon the social future.

KEYWORDS:

• Future
• gender
• youth
• long-term thinking

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my PhD supervisors Jens Zinn and Lauren Rosewarne for their guidance on the research underpinning this article, and to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Although the tendency towards women who either had or anticipated having biological children within the sample was likely due to the sampling strategy, as outlined in the discussion of the methodology, the participants who were recruited during the first round of sample prior to the implementation of this strategy also reflected this tendency, indicating that it is likely to be a common experience.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Postgraduate Award administered by the Department of Education and Training.