Grandparenthood: Crossroads between Gender and Aging

Abstract:  This paper attempts to examine the factors affecting the significance of grandparenthood and grandparent behaviors in Japan. The study pays specific attention to the interplay of gender and aging, notably the mixture of maintenance and transformation of gendered family life from middle age to later life. The data analyzed in this study are from a random sample aged between 60 and 75, containing 322 grandparents (146 grandfathers, 176 grandmothers). Results indicate a complicated mechanism of aging and gender operating in the construction of grandparenthood. Analyses show that continuity and transformation of gendered family life are mainly reflected in the significance of grandparenthood rather than grandparent behaviors. The significance of grandparenthood for females, with less dynamic changes in later life, could be a product of the long-standing and cumulative effects of gendered midlife. On the contrary, grandparenthood could become increasingly important for males with advancing age, implying a dynamic transformation of masculinity or male identity with family in later life. This increasing significance of grandfatherhood is discussed with respect to possible structural changes of male personal networks during the transition to later life.