Family issues between gender and generations

6 Helmut Wintersberger
How can we define a generation? First we have to chose appropriate time intervals or to set up other
criteria for deciding who belongs to which generation. Secondly, a generation might be defined
longitudinally as a cohort (e.g. the war generation) or structurally (e.g. childhood). A similar
ambiguity also exists at the level of the family, at least in the English language, where the term ‘child’
may stand for a person under a certain age (e.g. 18 years) or refer to the kinship relationship between
parents and their children. In the following text, it is obvious that different notions of generational
relations are used. In the section on generational relations at the family level, the authors define
‘generations’ predominantly by kinship. In the subsequent section on generational solidarity and
conflict, generations are basically understood not in a longitudinal but rather in a structural
perspective, in terms of childhood, adulthood and old age.
Family at a multiple intersection point between society
and the individual, gender and generations
The programme of the seminar distinguishes between the levels of the family and society. In
principle, this distinction applies to both the gender and generational dimensions. While François
Höpflinger uses two different terms in the German language (Beziehungen for the family level, and
Verhältnisse for the social level), the term ‘relations’ denotes both types in English. However, this
should not prevent us from perceiving (gender or generational) relations at the levels of the family
and of society as distinct, yet interdependent phenomena. Relations between husbands and wives, as
well as between parents and children, have clearly to be distinguished from relations between men
and women as well as adults and children in a broader sense. However, there are also
interdependencies between the two levels; e.g. in the sense that women’s and men’s strategies within
the family are also to be understood in terms of family cultures and power relationships based on
gender.
The family is located somewhere in the centre of society below the collective, but above the
individual level. In addition, it holds a crucial position at the intersection point of gender and
generational lines. We could add the economic and the social as another dimension that somehow
is combined in the family. On the whole, it is an interesting and rich, though sometimes also
dangerous mix. Depending on one’s standpoint, the emphasis can be on the enormous potential of
families. It can also be on the dangers and risks to families, often exposed to contradictory
developments of individualisation and mass culture as well as conflictual gender and generational
relations (Beck/Beck-Gernsheim 1990). One might also simply consider the family as an analytical
model for simulating the complexities of modern and post-modern society in a more easily
comprehensible context.
Patriarchal and paternal welfare states
In some papers, the introduction of gender and generational perspectives is linked with the analysis
of welfare states. The traditional welfare state originates from the recurrent crises of capitalism and
the challenge of the labour movement. Welfare states were not established to fundamentally change
the social division of labour; their aim was to distribute income among social classes in a fairer way.
Consequently, most welfare-state measures were originally aimed at male workers. Therefore,
feminists rightly argued that the welfare state had a gender bias, that men benefited more from the
welfare state than women did. Even if different countries developed different approaches, and
different models of welfare states are found today, this criticism is still true and a more or less
articulate gender bias still exists. The question is to identify the patriarchal nature of the welfare state.
The answer offered by Susanne Schunter-Kleemann in this volume once more refers to the social
division of labour. However, she goes further to argue that, in the case of gender — differently from