Renewing the Family: A History of the Baby Boomers (INED Population Studies Book 4)

This book traces the history of the baby-boomers, beginning with an explanation of the cause of the post-war baby boom and ending with the contemporary concerns of ageing boomers. It shows how the baby-boomers challenged traditional family attitudes and adopted new lifestyles in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on 90 interviews conducted with baby boomers living in London and Paris, the book demonstrates how their aspirations for leisure and consumption converged with family responsibilities and obligations. It shows how the baby boomers emerged from an authoritative upbringing to challenge some of the traditional assumptions of the family, such as marriage and cohabitation. The rise of feminism led by the baby-boomers is examined, together with its impact on family forms and structures. The book shows how women’s trajectories veered between the two extremes of family and employment, swerving between the models of stay-at-home mother and working woman. It demonstrates how new family configurations such as solo parenting, and recomposed families were adopted by the baby boomers. Today, as they enter into retirement, the baby-boomers remain closely involved in the lives of their children and parents, although relationships with elderly parents are maintained primarily through a sense of duty and obligation. The book concludes that the baby boomers have both been influenced by and actors to the changes and transformations that have occurred to family life. They reconciled, and continue to reconcile, individualism with family obligations. As grandparents often with an ageing parent still alive, the baby boomers wish to keep the independence that has been the hallmark of their generation whilst not abandoning family life... This book traces the history of the baby-boomers, beginning with an explanation of the cause of the post-war baby boom and ending with the contemporary concerns of ageing boomers. It shows how the baby-boomers challenged traditional family attitudes and adopted new lifestyles in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on 90 interviews conducted with baby boomers living in London and Paris, the book demonstrates how their aspirations for leisure and consumption converged with family responsibilities and obligations. It shows how the baby boomers emerged from an authoritative upbringing to challenge some of the traditional assumptions of the family, such as marriage and cohabitation. The rise of feminism led by the baby-boomers is examined, together with its impact on family forms and structures. The book shows how women's trajectories veered between the two extremes of family and employment, swerving between the models of stay-at-home mother and working woman. It demonstrates how new family configurations such as solo parenting, and recomposed families were adopted by the baby boomers. Today, as they enter into retirement, the baby-boomers remain closely involved in the lives of their children and parents, although relationships with elderly parents are maintained primarily through a sense of duty and obligation. The book concludes that the baby boomers have both been influenced by and actors to the changes and transformations that have occurred to family life. They reconciled, and continue to reconcile, individualism with family obligations. As grandparents often with an ageing parent still alive, the baby boomers wish to keep the independence that has been the hallmark of their generation whilst not abandoning family life .. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-13 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 The Baby Boom Phenomenon....Pages 17-40 The Baby Boomers’ Childhood....Pages 41-63 Front Matter....Pages 65-65 The Family in Perpetual Motion....Pages 67-86 Rebellious Teenagers....Pages 87-108 Front Matter....Pages 109-109 Life outside the Family: Working Women....Pages 111-139 The Family Wins Through....Pages 141-168 Front Matter....Pages 169-169 Caught Between Parents and Children....Pages 171-197 Baby Boomers and Their Family Entourage....Pages 199-227 Conclusion....Pages 229-240 Back Matter....Pages 241-268 2.2.2 The Baby Boomers' Mothers2.2.3 Youth Movements: An Early Source of Emancipation for the Baby Boomers' Mothers; 2.3 Conclusion; The Baby Boomers' Childhood; Chapter 3; 3.1 Living Conditions During the Baby Boomers' Childhood and Adolescence; 3.1.1 Housing Problems; 3.1.2 Homes Gradually Become More Comfortable; 3.1.3 Overcrowded Dwellings; 3.1.4 The Arrival of Household Appliances; 3.2 An Authoritarian Upbringing; 3.2.1 Children's Upbringing Within the Family Unit; 3.2.1.1 Stricter Education in France; 3.2.1.2 A More Liberal Upbringing for Some Baby boomers; 3.2.2 Religious Upbringing 3.3 Mass Education3.3.1 Rising Numbers; 3.3.2 Girls' Schools and Boys' Schools; 3.4 Conclusion; Part II ; Baby Boomers Against the Family; Chapter 4; The Family in Perpetual Motion; 4.1 A New Mystery: The "Demographic Earthquake" 1965-1985; 4.1.1 Precursors; 4.1.2 Researchers' Explanations; 4.2.1 Stirrings of Revolution (1950-1960); 4.2 The Winds of Freedom; 4.2.2 The Pendulum Swings in France: The Baby Boomers and May 1968; 4.3 Conclusion; 5.1.1 Keeping the Family at Arm's Length; Chapter 5; Rebellious Teenagers; 5.1 Residential Separation; 5.1.2 Residential Separation, Study and Work Foreword; Authors' Notes and Acknowledgements; Contents; Chapter 1; Introduction; 1.1 The Family Renewed; 1.2 Did the Baby Boomers Really Transform the Family?; 1.3 A Comparative Approach; 1.4 A Combination of Methods; Part I ; Baby Boomers in the Family; Chapter 2; The Baby Boom Phenomenon; 2.1 The Unexplained Recovery in the Birth Rate; 2.1.1 What Was the Baby Boom?; 2.1.2 Why Did the Baby Boom Happen?; 2.1.2.1 The Recovery of the Birth Rate in 1942; 2.1.2.2 Why Did the Baby Boom Last So Long?; 2.2 An Enigma-The Parents of the Baby Boomers; 2.2.1 The Baby Boomers' Grandmothers 5.1.3 Residential Separation and an Employee's Job Market5.2 Girls Against Motherhood; 5.2.1 Liberation for and Through Women?; 5.2.2 Female Trajectories: Different Timescales; 5.2.3 Work, a Feminine Noun; 5.2.4 Cohabitation and Conjugal Relations; 5.3 Conclusion; Part III; Baby Boomers in Alternative Families; Chapter 6; Life outside the Family: Working Women; 6.1 Changes in Women's Work; 6.2 Women Who Devote Themselves to Hearth and Home; 6.2.1 A Life Focused on Home and Family; 6.2.2 Stay-at-Home Mothers and Voluntary Work; 6.3 Women Who Fit Their Work around Their Family 6.3.1 A Conscious Compromise6.3.2 A Bitter Compromise; 6.4 Women Who Focus on Their Careers; 6.4.1 Women Living on Their Own; 6.4.2 Women with Children; 6.5 Women Who Return to Full Time Work After a Divorce; 6.5.1 Fault Divorce; 6.5.2 Bankruptcy Divorce; 6.6 A New Conflict: Mother versus Daughter; 6.7 Conclusion; Chapter 7; The Family Wins Through; 7.1 From a Single Lifecycle to Multiple Life Trajectories; 7.1.1 Leaving Home to Live Alone; 7.1.2 Living Together Before Marrying; 7.1.3 Staying Married; 7.1.4 Separating; 7.2 New Family Configurations; 7.2.1 Solo Parenting