Inequalities, gender and the life course

Jacques-Antoine Gauthier, Lavinia Gianettoni, Jean-Marie Le Goff

Development of gender indicators and data analysis from a gender perspective

The objective is to develop gender indicators that can explain gender inequalities and/or possible attitudinal differences between men and women. This approach contributes to denaturalizing the possible attitudinal differences observed between men and women by highlighting their social construction.

The basic psychosocial model on which we rely (Blondé, Gianettoni, Gross and Guilley, 2021) assumes that gender indicators may be broken down into three dimensions

• Gendered experiences and practices: for example, the occupational activity rate, how gendered the occupation is, the level of investment in domestic tasks, the experience of sexist or LGBTphobic discrimination, etc...
• Beliefs about gendered roles: for example, position on sexism scales (modern, traditional, ambivalent, etc.), LGBTphobia, etc.
• Gender, gendered or sexual identities (independently of the categorization in one of the two sex classes)

Family life course and related lives

The articulation between life course and inequalities is divided into three subfields.

• Inequalities and vulnerabilities
  • The context (from regional to local)
  • Gender inequalities in all spheres of life (education, family, labor market, etc.) and their combination with other hierarchized social relations (class, nationality, etc.)
  • The personal networks and life trajectories that provide complementary perspectives on the processes of social differentiation.
     
• The temporal perspective
  We distinguish here:
  • The repeated cross-sectional: with international surveys such as the ESS, EVS or ISSP, and their Swiss equivalents such as MOSAiCH or SELECTS.
  • The longitudinal approach of one or more cohorts, as in the Family tiMes, LIVES-Cohort or Devenir parent models.
  • The "Life course" approach, with retrospective life calendars or prospective panels, which can be combined (SHP, SHARE).
     
• Linked lives in context
  The notions of mobility and motility (understood as a potential of mobility) developed by Vincent Kaufmann and his colleagues at EPFL is implemented in the MOSAiCH 2019 survey. The question of geographic mobility is central to understanding how individual life courses are linked in relational networks and how they are both structured and structuring, in ways that vary from one context to another.

Entry and exit from the labor market

This axis aims to analyze occupational trajectories and transitions. The focus is on labor market entry during the transition to adulthood, on the one hand, and its exit during the transition to retirement, on the other.

• Transition to adulthood of children of migrants
  M. Chimienti, J.-M. Le Goff, C. Bolzman, N. Dasoki, E. Guichard (Lives IP6 Project)
  The project compares the integration of migrant children and children of Swiss descent in the labor market according to the social characteristics of their parents and their own educational background. The research is based on the theoretical approaches of segmented integration, migration studies and cumulative (dis)advantage. It uses data from the LIVES-Cohort survey.
   
• Well-being and work life extension, a gender perspective (Lives-IP6, Norface projects)
  With N. Lefeuvre, J.-A. Gauthier, B. Wernli, Th. Rossier and N. Rougier
  This project focuses on the employment patterns and working conditions of older workers (50+) in different national contexts characterized by contrasting gender regimes, labor market structures and policy initiatives for working life extension (Czech Republic, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland & UK).

Christina Bornatici
Jérôme Blondé
Jacques-Antoine Gauthier
Lavinia Gianettoni
Jean-Marie Le Goff
Sandrine Morel
Stephanie Steinmetz

Inclusion of gender indicators in MOSAiCH 2022 and data valorization (2020- )

• gender indicators proposal (Bornatici, Blondé, Gianettoni, Le Goff, Gauthier, 2021)
• data valorization (from 2022)
   

SNF project 26042659 "Vocational training pathways taking into account gender and sexual orientation" (2019-2023)

• test items and validation of the sexism and homophobia scale (Blondé, Gianettoni, Gross and Guilley, 2021)
• longitudinal validation (in progress)
   

Inequalities and spatial mobilities (MOSAiCH 2019, Lives-IP6 projects)
G. Viry (Uni Edinburgh, EPFL), J.-A. Gauthier (UNIL), G. Devron (EPFL), V. Kaufmann (EPFL)
Analysis of the links between spatial mobility, social network, and conjugal satisfaction Creation of various migration and between partners residential distance indicators (based on geolocation)

Current axes of analysis:

• Relationship Satisfaction of Couples Living in Switzerland in The Light of Couples' Residential Mobility and Network Overlap
• Family migration, employment status and couple satisfaction
• Inequalities in spatial mobility: Motility, personal networks and couple satisfaction
• Couple satisfaction and motility
   

Transition to adulthood of children of migrants (Lives Cohort, Lives-IP6 project, (2018-2022)
M. Chimienti (HETS), J.-M. Le Goff (Unil), N. Dasoki (FORS), C. Bolzmann (HETS), E. Guichard (HETS)
Transition to adulthood of children of migrants and comparison with children of Swiss descent. Analysis of the Lives-cohort survey

Axes of analysis:

• Categorization of second generation migrants
• Cumulative effects (migratory background, education, occupational integration)
• Mixed methods: Interviews with a sub-sample (n=35) in autumn 2020 on experiences during semi-confinement and relations with parents
   

Well-being and the life-course (2015 -)
J.-M. Le Goff (Unil) & V.-A. Ryser (Fors)

Axes of analysis:

• Marital status and well-being (Lives IP5, 2018-2022)
• Review of LIVES work on life course and well-being (with L. Bernardi, 2020-2021)
• Participation to the Wellways project (FNS), (well-being and life course events, L. Bernardi and M. Voorpostel). Realization of a scoping review (2019-2022)
   

Methodological projects

• History Matters: The statistical modeling of life history (Scott (NYU), Gauthier and Le Goff) (2020-2022)
• Combining Event history Analysis and Sequence analysis (Le Goff, Gauthier, Studer (Unige))
• Coding of open questions (Sarrasin and Gauthier)
• Representations in social interactions: a snow ball method (J.-A. Gauthier, A. Pollien)
• Work in collaboration with the PSM (S. Morel and M. Voorpostel)
  Development of a new household typology (Sandrine Morel, 2019- 2021)
  R scripting, SPSS syntax conversion (2020-)
  Analysis of the quality of responses according to the reference person (just started)
   

Projects that are starting

• GGP survey in Switzerland (2021-2030). (S. Steinmetz, G. Lutz, J.-A. Gauthier, L. Gianettoni, J.-M. Le Goff). Submission of an infrastructure request.
• Impact of Covid-19 on gendered division of labor according to family configurations (Gauthier and Le Goff) (2021-)
• In classroom administration of questionnaires using smartphone vs. computer (wave 2 of the SNF project 26042659 (L. Gianettoni, with Edith Guilley, Dinah Gross and Jérôme Blondé)
• New technologies in education, differentiated impact according to the social class of the students (co-direction of Lucas Dall'Olio's thesis, L. Gianettoni with Corinna Martarelli, prof UniDistance)
• The time of cultural practices (Gauthier and Moeschler)