Life Course Status and Exchanges of Support Between Young Adults and Parents

The authors investigated intergenerational support exchanges in relation to young adults' life course status. In a sample of 2,022 young adults (ages 18–34 years) in The Netherlands, single young adults reported receiving more advice from parents than married young adults, and those with children of their own received more practical support. Married young adults and young adults with children provided less support to parents than, respectively, single young adults and young adults without children. Congruent with the life course perspective, the authors' findings suggest that the intergenerational support network is both durable and flexible, responding to the resources and needs associated with an individual's life course status.     

Social Movement,Action and Change: The Influence of Women's Movements on City Government in Mumbai and London

This article reports on a research investigation into gender and local government in Mumbai in India and London in England. In both these cities female representation at the political level stands at around one third, achieved in London slowly in recent years and in Mumbai more rapidly through the adoption of a quota, or seat reservation system, implemented in 1992. In considering the experience of the women concerned it is argued that their presence and aspirations have been influenced through the networks of their respective women's movements, operating through civil society and the local state. In considering the ways in which they organize and manage the duties of office and their gendered identities, as well as in their focus on the most disadvantaged in their communities and in their dealings with others, the part played by social movements in influencing change is examined.     

Activation as a Common Framework for Social Policies towards Lone Parents

This article compares recent social policy reforms in respect of lone-parent families in three different national contexts: France, the Netherlands and the UK. In all three countries there is an increasing focus on activation policies to promote employment among lone parents. The authors examine whether this common framework of activation has led to a policy convergence across these three countries.     

Transferring HIV/AIDS Related Healthcare from Non‐governmental Organizations to the Public Healthcare System in South Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

Almost two decades after the transition to a post‐apartheid regime, South Africa is still high‐ranking in the incidence of chronic diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and hypertension. This article explores the transition from HIV/AIDS related healthcare offered by internationally supported non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in rural areas to the inclusion of this healthcare into the public healthcare system. This transition is part of a wider process that represents the exact reverse of healthcare reforms in Western industrialized countries. Instead of a transition from public healthcare to privatized or marketized healthcare, the transition in South Africa is from partly private healthcare to a public healthcare system in which the private commercial health sector as well as all services provided by NGOs will be integrated. In that process, many obstacles obscure intended outcomes, such as equal access to healthcare. Some obstacles are evident in the case studies of two internationally supported NGOs in the field of HIV/AIDS healthcare. We will conclude that governance structures of public and private NGO‐based healthcare are often difficult to integrate; implementation timelines and priorities do not always coincide; and the public healthcare system is still too weak to deliver good quality healthcare in rural areas without continued NGO support.     

Pension Reforms,Working Patterns and Gender Pension Gaps in Europe

European pension reforms are dominated by the principles of privatization and individualization. Privatizing and individualizing pension entitlements call for a redefinition of the responsibilities of states and individuals. Moreover, statutorily introducing individualization calls for equal opportunities to be guaranteed. However, the implementation of equal opportunities is a long way off because pension‐determining factors are still subject to gender distinctions, among other things. Gender distinction is inherent in life courses as well as in welfare arrangements. Welfare arrangements determine the legitimate reasons for gaining pension rights, how the measures of different entitlements are interrelated and which factors hamper a person's ability to fulfil the pension norm. This article analyses the link between welfare arrangements and women's life courses for a better understanding of the gendered norms of pension entitlements by focusing on gendered wages and life expectancies, gendered working patterns, and the connection between care and pensions.     

The Labor Market Orientation of Single Mothers on Welfare in The Netherlands

Since the implementation of the new General Assistance Act (1996) in The Netherlands, single parents on welfare have become obliged to seek work as soon as their youngest child has become 5 years old. This article presents a study of 1,049 Dutch single mothers on welfare. Using LISREL, a conceptual model is examined for the effects of both the past and current circumstances of the mothers on their labor orientation and on their steps toward a full‐time job. An individual mother's motivation to work is particularly related to the importance she attaches to caring (care ethos) as opposed to working (work ethos) and to the problems she anticipates in combining care and work.     

Intergenerational Contact and the Life Course Status of Young Adult Children

This study examined how the life course status of young adults—whether they have a romantic partner and whether they have children—is related to how often they have contact with their parents. Hypotheses were tested using recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study. The main sample included 1,911 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34. Results suggest that young adults’ entrance into cohabitation and marriage is associated with less face‐to‐face contact with parents. Young adults with children of their own tend to see their parents more frequently than young adults without offspring. Findings are congruent with the family life course perspective, contending that family relationships are related to the life course status of individual family members.