Emerging Trends in The Social and Behavioral Sciences

Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

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Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

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Gender and the Transition to
Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View
INGRID SCHOON

Abstract
The transition to adulthood can be considered as a status passage in the institutionalized life course, involving the assumption of new social roles, such as
the completion of education, entry into the labor market, and family formation
(Shanahan, 2000). It is guided by age-related legal norms as well as population-based
norms and informal expectations regarding appropriate ages for the completion
of education, marriage, or becoming a parent, and the sequencing and combination of these roles (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011). These norms and expectations,
or “scripts of life” (Buchmann, 1989), can vary by gender, ethnicity, and social
class—and are also highly responsive to social change. In this essay, I introduce a
diverse pathways view examining variations and changes in transition experiences
among men and women, as well as similarities in pathways to independent
adulthood between the 1960s and today. The essay also addresses the intersection
of multiple inequalities (focusing on class and gender) that shape individual
transition experiences, and introduces the notion of “bounded diversity” taking
into account the institutional framing of transitions. It is argued that existing
templates for the transition to adulthood are dominated by the assumption of
a linear career path moving from full-time education to full-time continuous
employment, which is more typical for males than females, ignores the dynamics
of human lives, and the need to combine work and family roles. To address
the complexities and variations in transitions of men and women and in different subgroups of the population, it is necessary to revise existing templates
and increase awareness of persisting inequalities. Moving toward more flexible
and dynamic conceptions that represent the changing everyday arrangements
between men and women, it can be possible to undercut traditional views of
status differences and open up new potential for life projects. I first review key
findings regarding gender differences in transition experiences, followed by
a brief consideration of recent research, and a discussion of issues for future
research.

INTRODUCTION
The transition to adulthood is a demographically dense period, involving
multiple and interrelated social role changes across the “big five” role
transitions, including completion of full-time education, entry into paid
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

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employment, leaving the parental home, and the step into family formation
and parenthood (Settersten, 2007). Each of these role transitions brings
with it new challenges and opportunities, and completing most, if not all,
of these role transitions is often considered to be the marker for reaching
independent adulthood (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011; Shanahan, 2000). The
transition to adulthood is set in a changing sociocultural context and there
can be variations in the timing, sequencing, and patterning of transitions
based on gender, socioeconomic background, ethnicity, culture, and historical period (Schoon & Silbereisen, 2009; Settersten, Furstenberg, & Rumbaut,
2005). The timetable for completing specific transitions is not globally valid,
but is culturally based (Buchmann, 1989; Marini, 1984) and structured
through institutional settings. Age-related expectation regarding the timing
and sequencing of transitions are subject to change, often brought about
through influences from the wider sociohistorical context in which these
transitions are embedded, through individual agency or collective action
(Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2004). Examining the timing and sequencing of
transition experiences as well as the role of multiple macro- to micro-level
influences on individual development, life course theory (Elder, 1985)
provides a comprehensive framework, especially regarding issues of gender
variability in experiences during times of social change.
The life course can be understood as a series of role transitions that denote
changes in status or social roles, such as leaving school and entering full-time
employment. Each role and status change can be understood as a turning
point with significant social, emotional, and economic implications. Transitions are, however, not single, isolated events, but often overlap and occur
simultaneously. For example, young people might be in higher education
and at the same time are engaged in paid employment, have a partner and
may even have children. The combination of multiple social roles at a given
time point has been conceptualized by the notion of role or status configurations to describe patterns of discrete social roles that individuals occupy
(Macmillan & Eliason, 2003). The life course thus comprises a sequence of
status profiles where status or role configurations at a given point in time
can be understood as the result of previous transition histories, individual
agency, and contextual factors. Individual experiences and agency interact
with the wider sociohistorical context to shape the occurrence, timing, and
order by which individuals assume configurations of social roles.
CHANGING PATHWAYS TO ADULTHOOD
Up to the 1960s, transition experiences of young people have been characterized by a normative linear timetable of events, characterizing a gendered
life course. Men generally could expect to follow a pathway from schooling

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through full-time continuous employment to retirement, while women were
expected to marry and support their husband’s careers and to look after the
family. The breadwinner/homemaker template provided a guideline about
careers by creating a divide between paid work and unpaid family-care work,
and thus a gender divide regarding occupational prospects and opportunities (Buchmann, 1989; Levy & Widmer, 2013; Moen & Roehling, 2005). Today,
the gender division is disputed and is more permeable.
Following the youth and student rebellions during the 1960s and early
1970s, young people began to experiment with new ideas and life styles,
bringing with it pervasive value changes (Inglehart & Norris, 2003). These
were manifested in demographic variations such as delayed marriage and
childbirth, the rise of nonmarital unions, divorce, and remarriage, and
ideational claims to autonomy and self realization. The transition into
independent living became disassociated from the traditional markers of
adulthood, such as getting married. The women’s movement also played
a crucial role in reshaping the lives of both women and men, encouraging
women to pursue education and careers partially independent from family
formation. The expansion of further education as well as the increasing
participation of women in the labor market have been considered as explanations for the increasing prolongation and destandardization of life course
transitions (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006).
Owing to the increasing participation in higher education and the labor
force since the 1960s, it has furthermore been argued that the life course
of men and women has become more similar (Charles, 2011). Moreover,
women are increasingly taking on the role of main breadwinner in the
family (Crompton, 2006; Cunningham, 2008), pointing toward new templates defining social relations between men and women. However, gender
equality in opportunity and attainment remains an aspiration, and the
gender revolution that started in the 1960s has stalled (England, 2010;
Schoon & Eccles, 2015). This is due to a number of reasons, including the
lack of change in the personal realm and in the cultural and institutional
devaluation of activities associated with women.
PERSISTING INEQUALITIES
Some have interpreted the changes in transitions as a widening of life chances
and opportunities, characterized by changing social practices and the breakdown of many class- and gender-based constraints shaping demographic
events, such as employment and family formation (Lesthaeghe, 2010). Individual biographies are considered to have become more removed from traditional life scripts and more dependent on individual decision making and
choice (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). The notion of individual decision

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making has, however, to be understood against the background of persisting inequalities in transition experiences due to gender, ethnicity, and class.
The notion of bounded agency (Shanahan, 2000) takes into account persisting
evidence of unequal access to educational and career opportunities and interprets the changes in life course transitions as difficult and sometimes involuntary adaptations to external constraints. Participation in higher education,
for example, has shown to be more strongly influenced by social background
than ability, suggesting persistent inequalities in educational opportunities
(Breen & Goldthorpe, 2002; Schoon, 2008, 2010). Furthermore, women generally make the step into family formation and parenthood earlier than men
(Billari & Liefbroer, 2010; Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006; Martin, Schoon, &
Ross, 2008) and in most Western countries they also leave the parental home
earlier than men—either to start their own family, or increasingly so, to live
independently.
AGENCY AND STRUCTURE
It has been argued that men and women develop different preferences,
aspirations or values regarding their future careers (Hakim, 2000; Watt
& Eccles, 2008). Men are considered to be motivated by the desire for
mastery and self-reliance, while women strive for social approval and an
orientation to others. Furthermore, women perceive they are more capable
than men in reading, writing, the social sciences, and humanities, while
men perceive they do better in mathematics, sciences, and technical fields.
These self-perceptions, in turn, are reflected in the choice of post-high school
careers, college majors, professional degrees, and occupations (Correll, 2004;
Eccles, 1994). Gendered preferences and beliefs do not, however, develop
in a vacuum, and have to be seen as embedded within the social contexts
in which they emerge, and which, in turn, they can influence and shape
(Schoon & Eccles, 2015).
Previous research has shown that attainment gaps between men and
women are closing. Since the 1980s, women perform better than men
in education, are more motivated at school, more ambitious regarding
their educational and occupational aspirations (Reynolds & Burge, 2008;
Schoon, 2010), and gender differences in higher education enrolment have
disappeared in most countries (Schofer & Meyer, 2005) or even reversed.
In adulthood, however, women do not reach the same social positions as
men. Although they are increasingly entering the professional “pipeline,”
they do not make it to the top executive positions (Moen & Roehling, 2005;
Scott et al., 2010). This pattern holds also in female-dominated occupations,
such as nursing or teaching. Furthermore, in addition to a rising demand
for highly qualified young people, recent labor market changes also led to

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an increasing demand for low-skilled, low-paid, mainly service jobs (Goos
& Manning, 2007; Karoly, 2009), pointing toward a growing polarization of
employment opportunities, with women being overrepresented in relatively
low-status occupations, for example, care assistants and low-skilled service
occupations.
The lack of progress regarding gender equality has been attributed to a
“glass ceiling,” an invisible barrier to advancement or cumulative disadvantage of blocked opportunities based on attitudinal and/or structural
bias. Gendered beliefs can be understood not just as individual beliefs
but as culturally hegemonic in that the depiction of men and women is
institutionalized in the media, government policy, normative images of
the family, and so on, implying a gender hierarchy (Ridgeway & Correll,
2004). In their analysis of gender as a social interactional construct, West
and Zimmerman (1987) have argued that “gender is an emergent feature of
social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social
arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental
divisions of society” (p. 126). Considering gender as a multilevel structure,
or institution of social practices that mutually reinforce processes at the
individual, the interactional (social relational), and the macro-level, Cecilia
Ridgway (2009) argues that changes in political, economic, and technological
factors that alter the everyday arrangements between men and women by
undercutting traditional views of status differences could in the long run
bring with it changes in gender beliefs (Ridgeway, 2009).
For example, considering the role of parents in supporting the career
development of their children, previous studies among students in the
1950s and 1960s have shown that although girls attained, on average, higher
grades than boys, they received less encouragement from their parents
and had lower educational aspirations (Sewell, Hauser, & Wolf, 1980).
In the wake of education expansion and increasing female participation
in the labor market, more recent research however indicates changes in
aspirations both among parents and their children (Reynolds & Burge, 2008)
and a reversal in gender stereotyping due to the changing social relational
context. In current cohorts, girls have generally higher education and career
aspirations than boys. Furthermore, parental support for higher education
is generally higher for daughters than for sons, especially among relatively
less privileged families (Schoon, 2010). These findings suggest complex
interactions between institutional change, social background, and gender in
shaping the formation of aspirations. While aspirations are generally raised,
among working class parents boys appear to be perceived as less suited
for participation in higher education than girls, suggesting that there are
persisting templates for male careers in traditional manual occupations. The
processes shaping gender differences in transition experiences in times of

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social change are not yet fully understood, and the effects of the correlated
structural and individual level variables are difficult to disentangle.
TIMING AND SEQUENCING OF TRANSITIONS MATTERS
One way forward in gaining a better understanding of the multiple and
intertwined influences on development is to look more closely at the timing
and sequencing of transition experiences and how these are shaped. In
every society, age is used as a mean of placing individuals in a template
defining and regulating possible transitions. There are cultural norms and
expectations about the timing of transitions: the right time to leave school,
to get a job, to find a partner, and to start a family (Buchmann & Kriesi,
2011; Marini, 1984), although these norms can vary by cultural context
and gender. Normative, or “on-time transitions” are “culturally prepared”
by socialization and institutional arrangements and are understood to be
psychologically salutary. Those who are “off-time”: too early or too late
are thought to be the target of negative social sanctions and to experience
psychological strain (Heckhausen, 1999). Furthermore, the timing of one
transition (such as early parenthood) often has implications for other
transitions (i.e. continuing in education or entry to employment).
The time frame for achieving most of the developmental demands might
have expanded for later born cohorts, and more recent cohorts might feel
more relaxed about not fulfilling all five transition demands by their late
twenties, in particular the step into parenthood (Shanahan, 2000). Early transitions, in contrast, such as leaving school at compulsory school age (instead
of continuing in higher education), or early parenthood are generally considered as social problems. On the other hand, it has been argued that early
transitions can be beneficial for certain individuals (Booth, Rustenbach, &
McHale, 2008). For example, the effects of parenthood on well-being depend
on marital status as well as other circumstances in life (Nomaguchi & Milkie,
2003). According to “developmental match/mismatch models” (Eccles, 1994)
transitions that provide a progressive increase in developmentally appropriate challenges through which young people can experience competence
enable the individual to successfully master the transition. If, however, the
demands of the developmental transitions are not matched to the capabilities of the individual, or if they amplify previous difficulties, there can be
a negative effect on mental health and well-being. This points to the role of
institutional structures in shaping and channeling life course transitions over
and above individual agency and socioeconomic constraints, and the need
for flexibility.

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MULTIPLE, INTERLINKED TRANSITIONS
Existing templates and life course models are oriented toward a linear
sequence of education, full-time employment and retirement. Yet, human
lives do not follow such a lock-step sequence (Moen & Roehling, 2005). A
number of recent studies looking at transition experiences across different
countries found that there is not one normative way to successfully negotiate
the transition to adulthood, that there is heterogeneity in transition experiences. Unlike previous studies, which mostly looked at single transitions,
such as the transition from education to employment, these studies used
more holistic, or person-based approaches (Schulenberg & Schoon, 2012),
examining how different transitions (i.e., education, work, housing, family
formation, and parenthood) weave together in people’s lives.
These studies demonstrated the usefulness of latent class or latent transition analysis to map out diversity and heterogeneity in role configurations in
young adulthood (Macmillan & Copher, 2005), as well as sequence analysis
to assess the ordering and duration of multiple transition events simultaneously (Barban & Billari, 2012; Schoon et al., 2009). These studies found,
for example, that the active engagement and simultaneous commitment to
multiple meaningful social roles is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and well-being. For instance, in the UK context, 26-year-olds who
were delaying commitment to adult roles, who were focusing on only two
transitions, that is, education and work without establishing a committed
relationship or their own home, expressed reduced levels of life satisfaction
and higher levels of drinking (Schoon et al., 2012). Furthermore, through comparison of different birth cohorts, changes in trends and transition experiences can be revealed, and comparisons across countries can inform on the
role of different sociocultural contexts in shaping the timing and sequencing
of transition events (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011; Schulenberg & Schoon, 2012).
A DIVERSE PATHWAYS VIEW
Most men and women want to have it all, a career, a family, and a home
of their own. Yet, social and gender differences in transition experiences persist, as do gender specific expectations and career templates. As more women
have entered the workforce and have taken on new roles, they have retained
their position as the person responsible for childcare (Crompton, 2006; Moen
& Roehling, 2005). Women, wives and mothers, increasingly try to maintain
continuous employment, even if this means to work in low-paid jobs that
enable flexible working times, and continue to do most of society’s care work
without pay (Moen & Roehling, 2005). They are also more likely than men
to drop out of the labor market completely, mostly to look after their families and children (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006; Moen, 2003). For women,

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the roles as mother and labor-force participant appear to be interdependent
and in conflict, while for men their roles as father and worker are more independent and easier to combine, although many men, husbands and fathers,
have to put in long hours at work—and try to help out at the home (Moen &
Roehling, 2005).
Pathways to independent adulthood have diversified, especially for
women who have to develop more flexible strategies to combine different
social roles. Yet the diversity of pathways is not unlimited, and a set of
models mostly account for a large majority of individual lives (Levy &
Widmer, 2013; Schoon, Ross & Martin, 2009). These templates are shaped by
social background, gender, ethnicity, previous transition experiences as well
as institutional structures, suggesting bounded diversity. Some have argued
that there has been a polarization of transitions, differentiating between
fast versus slow transitions (Jones, 2002) or problematic versus smooth
pathways (Kerckhoff, 1993; McLanahan, 2004), reflecting the accumulation
of (dis-)advantages. There is however also a large group of young people
who fall between this dualism, who develop distinct strategies in navigating
the multiple demands of becoming an independent adult, juggling the
resources available to them, and finding adaptive solutions (Schoon, 2014).
Moving beyond a dualistic conceptualisation of transition experiences, I
suggest a diverse pathways view, taking into account human plasticity and
the potential for change. For example, defying the notion of a predetermined
trajectory, a considerable number of young people are able to turn round
an initially problematic transition, such as early school leaving (Schoon &
Duckworth, 2010) or early parenthood (Furstenberg, 2003; Schoon & Polek,
2011) and lead a happy and satisfied life. Finding a supportive partner or
support from the family and wider social community, for example, can play
a vital role. Moreover, participation in lifelong learning can have a significant protective effect by keeping adults close to a changing labor market
(Evans, Schoon, & Weale, 2013). Especially during conditions of growing
social inequality and economic uncertainty, workers of the future will be
expected to learn new skills throughout their labor market career, not just
at the beginning. This might also imply shifting to new lines of work when
old ones have become obsolete.
There is considerable dynamic in life course transitions, and each transition
can bring new challenges and opportunities, including the potential for
change. The potential for change is however not unlimited, is not always
positive, and depends on the constellations of pre-existing and concurrent
circumstances. The life course can be understood as a series of interlinked
sequence of status profiles, characterized by consistency and coherence as
well as discontinuity and change, involving the reorganization of previous
patterns. This dynamic and the interdependence of role transitions suggests

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the need for new conceptual models as well as empirical methods that
account for the multidimensional and multidirectional associations between
transition events, their antecedents, and associated outcomes.
SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
Previous research has shown a convergence in the male and female transition
to adulthood, with an increasing female participation in higher education
and employment. There is however considerable heterogeneity in transition
experiences due to persisting gender and social class differences. Current
policy thinking is still dominated by the assumption of a linear career path
moving from full-time education to full-time employment. Crucially, what is
lacking is the recognition that careers extend beyond conceptions of full-time,
uninterrupted education and paid work, into other domains of people’s lives,
such as family careers and other social roles. The findings presented here suggest the need for the revision of currently dominant templates and the introduction of new, more flexible and diversified life course models, taking into
account the experiences of different subgroups of the population, their need
for career path flexibility, which includes support for occasional time-outs,
second chances, and life-long learning. Existing social arrangements provide
guidelines for action and shared expectations and beliefs, yet they are outmoded conventions regarding education, paid work, unpaid care, and gender differences that hinder the development of new career regimes that integrate education and learning, work and family-related commitments as well
as wider social contacts across the life course. The findings draw attention
to the need for a more flexible, dynamic, and multilevel conceptualization
of transition experiences—a diverse pathways view. Methodologically this
implies the use of both population- and person-based approaches. Recognizing the interdependence of transitions, their dynamics, and the role of the
wider sociohistorical context in shaping individual aspirations and beliefs,
offers new avenues for future research on the changing transition to adulthood and its implication for social and individual development.
To adequately map changing trends in transition experiences, it is important to collect comparable information across different age and birth cohorts,
ideally on an international level and with large enough sample sizes to represent experiences for different subgroups of the population. To capture the
dynamics in transition experiences, it is vital to collect longitudinal data, following up on individuals over time. Over time, new measures that reflect
new developments and changes in everyday social relations and experiences
(e.g., involving new communication technologies) have to be introduced.
Moreover, great care has to be taken to also ensure comparability with previous measures, such as indicators of occupational status. Furthermore, it is

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important to collect good data on both structural and contextual factors as
well as individual experiences and preferences, requiring the collaboration
across disciplines, such as economics, sociology, psychology, demography,
and epidemiology. In addition, research of the future on gendered transition experiences should also take into account biological and physiological
differences; for example, changes occurring during puberty, that can have
long-term influences regarding the timing and sequencing of transition, as
well as cross-cultural and ethnic variations. Not only should variations in
transition experiences be accurately depicted and analyzed but it is also necessary to discern the meaning and mechanisms of these differences in more
detail.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The analysis and writing of this essay were supported by a grant from the
UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): RES-594-28-0001 (Centre
for the Study of Learning and Lifechances in the Knowledge Economies and
Societies [Llakes]) and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB).
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Schoon, I. (2010). Planning for the future: Changing education expectations in three
British cohorts. Historical Social Research-Historische Sozialforschung, 35(2), 99–119.
Schoon, I. (2014). Diverse pathways. Rethinking the transition to adulthood. In P.
Amato, A. Booth, S. McHale & J. Van Hook (Eds.), Diverging destinies: Families in
an era of increasing inequality. New York, NY: Springer.
Schoon, I., Chen, M., Kneale, D., & Jager, J. (2012). Becoming adults in Britain:
Lifestyles and wellbeing in times of social change. Longitudinal and Life Course
Studies, 3(2), 173–189.
Schoon, I., & Duckworth, K. (2010). Leaving school early—and making it! Evidence from two British birth cohorts. European Psychologist, 15(4), 283–292.
doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000063
Schoon, I., & Eccles, J. S. (Eds.) (2015). Gender differences in aspirations and attainment. A
life course perspective. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 115–136.
Schoon, I., & Polek, E. (2011). Pathways to economic wellbeing among teenage mothers in Great Britain. European Psychologist, 16, 11–20.

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Schoon, I., Ross, A., & Martin, P. (2009). Sequences, patterns, and variations in the
assumption of work and family related roles. Evidence from two British birth
cohorts. In I. Schoon & R. K. Silbereisen (Eds.), Transitions from school to work: Globalisation, individualisation, and patterns of diversity (pp. 219–242). New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
Schoon, I., & Silbereisen, K. R. (Eds.) (2009). Transitions from school to work: Globalisation, individualisation, and patterns of diversity. New York, NY: New York Cambridge
University Press.
Schulenberg, J. E., & Schoon, I. (2012). The transition to adulthood in the UK, the
US, and Finland: Differential social role pathways, their predictors and correlates.
Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 3(2), 164–172.
Scott, J., Crompton, R., & Lyonette, C. (Eds.) (2010). Gender inequalities in the 21st century. Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar.
Settersten, R. A., Jr. (2007). The new landscape of adult life: Road maps, signposts,
and speed lines. Research in Human Development, 4, 239–252.
Settersten, R. A., Furstenberg, F. F., & Rumbaut, R. G. (2005). On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Sewell, W. H., Hauser, R. M., & Wolf, W. C. (1980). Sex, schooling, and occupational
status. The American Journal of Sociology, 86(3), 551–583.
Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and
mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.667
Watt, H. M. G., & Eccles, J. S. (2008). Gender and occupational outcomes: Longitudinal
assessments of individual, social, and cultural influences. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1(2), 125–151.
doi:10.1177/0891243287001002002

FURTHER READING
Schoon, I. (2010). Childhood cognitive ability and adult academic attainment: Evidence from three British cohort studies. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 1(3),
241-258. http://www.journal.longviewuk.com/index.php/llcs/article/view/
293/285.

INGRID SCHOON SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Ingrid Schoon is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at the
Institute of Education, University of London and Research Professor at the
Wissenschafts Zentrum Berlin (WZB). She is coordinating the international
post-doctoral Fellowship programme “PATHWAYS to Adulthood,” funded
by the Jacobs Foundation, and is project leader for the ESRC funded Centre
for Learning and Lifechances in the Knowledge Economies and Societies

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(Llakes). Her research interests are focused on issues of human development
across the life course, in particular the transition from dependent childhood
to independent adulthood; social and gender equalities in attainment,
health and well-being; the study of risk and resilience and the realization of
individual potential in a changing sociohistorical context. She is currently
consulting editor for Developmental Psychology, member of the editorial
board of the “Journal of Adolescence,” “European Psychologist,” “Advances
in Life Course Research,” and “Longitudinal and Life Course Studies.” Her
publications include over 100 scholarly articles, a monograph on “Risk and
Resilience,” and two coedited books on “Transitions from school-to-work”
(with Rainer K. Silbereisen) and “Gender differences in aspiration and
attainment” (with Jacquelynne S. Eccles), both published by Cambridge
University Press.
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Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

15

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Gender and the Transition to
Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View
INGRID SCHOON

Abstract
The transition to adulthood can be considered as a status passage in the institutionalized life course, involving the assumption of new social roles, such as
the completion of education, entry into the labor market, and family formation
(Shanahan, 2000). It is guided by age-related legal norms as well as population-based
norms and informal expectations regarding appropriate ages for the completion
of education, marriage, or becoming a parent, and the sequencing and combination of these roles (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011). These norms and expectations,
or “scripts of life” (Buchmann, 1989), can vary by gender, ethnicity, and social
class—and are also highly responsive to social change. In this essay, I introduce a
diverse pathways view examining variations and changes in transition experiences
among men and women, as well as similarities in pathways to independent
adulthood between the 1960s and today. The essay also addresses the intersection
of multiple inequalities (focusing on class and gender) that shape individual
transition experiences, and introduces the notion of “bounded diversity” taking
into account the institutional framing of transitions. It is argued that existing
templates for the transition to adulthood are dominated by the assumption of
a linear career path moving from full-time education to full-time continuous
employment, which is more typical for males than females, ignores the dynamics
of human lives, and the need to combine work and family roles. To address
the complexities and variations in transitions of men and women and in different subgroups of the population, it is necessary to revise existing templates
and increase awareness of persisting inequalities. Moving toward more flexible
and dynamic conceptions that represent the changing everyday arrangements
between men and women, it can be possible to undercut traditional views of
status differences and open up new potential for life projects. I first review key
findings regarding gender differences in transition experiences, followed by
a brief consideration of recent research, and a discussion of issues for future
research.

INTRODUCTION
The transition to adulthood is a demographically dense period, involving
multiple and interrelated social role changes across the “big five” role
transitions, including completion of full-time education, entry into paid
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

1

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

employment, leaving the parental home, and the step into family formation
and parenthood (Settersten, 2007). Each of these role transitions brings
with it new challenges and opportunities, and completing most, if not all,
of these role transitions is often considered to be the marker for reaching
independent adulthood (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011; Shanahan, 2000). The
transition to adulthood is set in a changing sociocultural context and there
can be variations in the timing, sequencing, and patterning of transitions
based on gender, socioeconomic background, ethnicity, culture, and historical period (Schoon & Silbereisen, 2009; Settersten, Furstenberg, & Rumbaut,
2005). The timetable for completing specific transitions is not globally valid,
but is culturally based (Buchmann, 1989; Marini, 1984) and structured
through institutional settings. Age-related expectation regarding the timing
and sequencing of transitions are subject to change, often brought about
through influences from the wider sociohistorical context in which these
transitions are embedded, through individual agency or collective action
(Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2004). Examining the timing and sequencing of
transition experiences as well as the role of multiple macro- to micro-level
influences on individual development, life course theory (Elder, 1985)
provides a comprehensive framework, especially regarding issues of gender
variability in experiences during times of social change.
The life course can be understood as a series of role transitions that denote
changes in status or social roles, such as leaving school and entering full-time
employment. Each role and status change can be understood as a turning
point with significant social, emotional, and economic implications. Transitions are, however, not single, isolated events, but often overlap and occur
simultaneously. For example, young people might be in higher education
and at the same time are engaged in paid employment, have a partner and
may even have children. The combination of multiple social roles at a given
time point has been conceptualized by the notion of role or status configurations to describe patterns of discrete social roles that individuals occupy
(Macmillan & Eliason, 2003). The life course thus comprises a sequence of
status profiles where status or role configurations at a given point in time
can be understood as the result of previous transition histories, individual
agency, and contextual factors. Individual experiences and agency interact
with the wider sociohistorical context to shape the occurrence, timing, and
order by which individuals assume configurations of social roles.
CHANGING PATHWAYS TO ADULTHOOD
Up to the 1960s, transition experiences of young people have been characterized by a normative linear timetable of events, characterizing a gendered
life course. Men generally could expect to follow a pathway from schooling

Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

3

through full-time continuous employment to retirement, while women were
expected to marry and support their husband’s careers and to look after the
family. The breadwinner/homemaker template provided a guideline about
careers by creating a divide between paid work and unpaid family-care work,
and thus a gender divide regarding occupational prospects and opportunities (Buchmann, 1989; Levy & Widmer, 2013; Moen & Roehling, 2005). Today,
the gender division is disputed and is more permeable.
Following the youth and student rebellions during the 1960s and early
1970s, young people began to experiment with new ideas and life styles,
bringing with it pervasive value changes (Inglehart & Norris, 2003). These
were manifested in demographic variations such as delayed marriage and
childbirth, the rise of nonmarital unions, divorce, and remarriage, and
ideational claims to autonomy and self realization. The transition into
independent living became disassociated from the traditional markers of
adulthood, such as getting married. The women’s movement also played
a crucial role in reshaping the lives of both women and men, encouraging
women to pursue education and careers partially independent from family
formation. The expansion of further education as well as the increasing
participation of women in the labor market have been considered as explanations for the increasing prolongation and destandardization of life course
transitions (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006).
Owing to the increasing participation in higher education and the labor
force since the 1960s, it has furthermore been argued that the life course
of men and women has become more similar (Charles, 2011). Moreover,
women are increasingly taking on the role of main breadwinner in the
family (Crompton, 2006; Cunningham, 2008), pointing toward new templates defining social relations between men and women. However, gender
equality in opportunity and attainment remains an aspiration, and the
gender revolution that started in the 1960s has stalled (England, 2010;
Schoon & Eccles, 2015). This is due to a number of reasons, including the
lack of change in the personal realm and in the cultural and institutional
devaluation of activities associated with women.
PERSISTING INEQUALITIES
Some have interpreted the changes in transitions as a widening of life chances
and opportunities, characterized by changing social practices and the breakdown of many class- and gender-based constraints shaping demographic
events, such as employment and family formation (Lesthaeghe, 2010). Individual biographies are considered to have become more removed from traditional life scripts and more dependent on individual decision making and
choice (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). The notion of individual decision

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

making has, however, to be understood against the background of persisting inequalities in transition experiences due to gender, ethnicity, and class.
The notion of bounded agency (Shanahan, 2000) takes into account persisting
evidence of unequal access to educational and career opportunities and interprets the changes in life course transitions as difficult and sometimes involuntary adaptations to external constraints. Participation in higher education,
for example, has shown to be more strongly influenced by social background
than ability, suggesting persistent inequalities in educational opportunities
(Breen & Goldthorpe, 2002; Schoon, 2008, 2010). Furthermore, women generally make the step into family formation and parenthood earlier than men
(Billari & Liefbroer, 2010; Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006; Martin, Schoon, &
Ross, 2008) and in most Western countries they also leave the parental home
earlier than men—either to start their own family, or increasingly so, to live
independently.
AGENCY AND STRUCTURE
It has been argued that men and women develop different preferences,
aspirations or values regarding their future careers (Hakim, 2000; Watt
& Eccles, 2008). Men are considered to be motivated by the desire for
mastery and self-reliance, while women strive for social approval and an
orientation to others. Furthermore, women perceive they are more capable
than men in reading, writing, the social sciences, and humanities, while
men perceive they do better in mathematics, sciences, and technical fields.
These self-perceptions, in turn, are reflected in the choice of post-high school
careers, college majors, professional degrees, and occupations (Correll, 2004;
Eccles, 1994). Gendered preferences and beliefs do not, however, develop
in a vacuum, and have to be seen as embedded within the social contexts
in which they emerge, and which, in turn, they can influence and shape
(Schoon & Eccles, 2015).
Previous research has shown that attainment gaps between men and
women are closing. Since the 1980s, women perform better than men
in education, are more motivated at school, more ambitious regarding
their educational and occupational aspirations (Reynolds & Burge, 2008;
Schoon, 2010), and gender differences in higher education enrolment have
disappeared in most countries (Schofer & Meyer, 2005) or even reversed.
In adulthood, however, women do not reach the same social positions as
men. Although they are increasingly entering the professional “pipeline,”
they do not make it to the top executive positions (Moen & Roehling, 2005;
Scott et al., 2010). This pattern holds also in female-dominated occupations,
such as nursing or teaching. Furthermore, in addition to a rising demand
for highly qualified young people, recent labor market changes also led to

Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

5

an increasing demand for low-skilled, low-paid, mainly service jobs (Goos
& Manning, 2007; Karoly, 2009), pointing toward a growing polarization of
employment opportunities, with women being overrepresented in relatively
low-status occupations, for example, care assistants and low-skilled service
occupations.
The lack of progress regarding gender equality has been attributed to a
“glass ceiling,” an invisible barrier to advancement or cumulative disadvantage of blocked opportunities based on attitudinal and/or structural
bias. Gendered beliefs can be understood not just as individual beliefs
but as culturally hegemonic in that the depiction of men and women is
institutionalized in the media, government policy, normative images of
the family, and so on, implying a gender hierarchy (Ridgeway & Correll,
2004). In their analysis of gender as a social interactional construct, West
and Zimmerman (1987) have argued that “gender is an emergent feature of
social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social
arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental
divisions of society” (p. 126). Considering gender as a multilevel structure,
or institution of social practices that mutually reinforce processes at the
individual, the interactional (social relational), and the macro-level, Cecilia
Ridgway (2009) argues that changes in political, economic, and technological
factors that alter the everyday arrangements between men and women by
undercutting traditional views of status differences could in the long run
bring with it changes in gender beliefs (Ridgeway, 2009).
For example, considering the role of parents in supporting the career
development of their children, previous studies among students in the
1950s and 1960s have shown that although girls attained, on average, higher
grades than boys, they received less encouragement from their parents
and had lower educational aspirations (Sewell, Hauser, & Wolf, 1980).
In the wake of education expansion and increasing female participation
in the labor market, more recent research however indicates changes in
aspirations both among parents and their children (Reynolds & Burge, 2008)
and a reversal in gender stereotyping due to the changing social relational
context. In current cohorts, girls have generally higher education and career
aspirations than boys. Furthermore, parental support for higher education
is generally higher for daughters than for sons, especially among relatively
less privileged families (Schoon, 2010). These findings suggest complex
interactions between institutional change, social background, and gender in
shaping the formation of aspirations. While aspirations are generally raised,
among working class parents boys appear to be perceived as less suited
for participation in higher education than girls, suggesting that there are
persisting templates for male careers in traditional manual occupations. The
processes shaping gender differences in transition experiences in times of

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

social change are not yet fully understood, and the effects of the correlated
structural and individual level variables are difficult to disentangle.
TIMING AND SEQUENCING OF TRANSITIONS MATTERS
One way forward in gaining a better understanding of the multiple and
intertwined influences on development is to look more closely at the timing
and sequencing of transition experiences and how these are shaped. In
every society, age is used as a mean of placing individuals in a template
defining and regulating possible transitions. There are cultural norms and
expectations about the timing of transitions: the right time to leave school,
to get a job, to find a partner, and to start a family (Buchmann & Kriesi,
2011; Marini, 1984), although these norms can vary by cultural context
and gender. Normative, or “on-time transitions” are “culturally prepared”
by socialization and institutional arrangements and are understood to be
psychologically salutary. Those who are “off-time”: too early or too late
are thought to be the target of negative social sanctions and to experience
psychological strain (Heckhausen, 1999). Furthermore, the timing of one
transition (such as early parenthood) often has implications for other
transitions (i.e. continuing in education or entry to employment).
The time frame for achieving most of the developmental demands might
have expanded for later born cohorts, and more recent cohorts might feel
more relaxed about not fulfilling all five transition demands by their late
twenties, in particular the step into parenthood (Shanahan, 2000). Early transitions, in contrast, such as leaving school at compulsory school age (instead
of continuing in higher education), or early parenthood are generally considered as social problems. On the other hand, it has been argued that early
transitions can be beneficial for certain individuals (Booth, Rustenbach, &
McHale, 2008). For example, the effects of parenthood on well-being depend
on marital status as well as other circumstances in life (Nomaguchi & Milkie,
2003). According to “developmental match/mismatch models” (Eccles, 1994)
transitions that provide a progressive increase in developmentally appropriate challenges through which young people can experience competence
enable the individual to successfully master the transition. If, however, the
demands of the developmental transitions are not matched to the capabilities of the individual, or if they amplify previous difficulties, there can be
a negative effect on mental health and well-being. This points to the role of
institutional structures in shaping and channeling life course transitions over
and above individual agency and socioeconomic constraints, and the need
for flexibility.

Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

7

MULTIPLE, INTERLINKED TRANSITIONS
Existing templates and life course models are oriented toward a linear
sequence of education, full-time employment and retirement. Yet, human
lives do not follow such a lock-step sequence (Moen & Roehling, 2005). A
number of recent studies looking at transition experiences across different
countries found that there is not one normative way to successfully negotiate
the transition to adulthood, that there is heterogeneity in transition experiences. Unlike previous studies, which mostly looked at single transitions,
such as the transition from education to employment, these studies used
more holistic, or person-based approaches (Schulenberg & Schoon, 2012),
examining how different transitions (i.e., education, work, housing, family
formation, and parenthood) weave together in people’s lives.
These studies demonstrated the usefulness of latent class or latent transition analysis to map out diversity and heterogeneity in role configurations in
young adulthood (Macmillan & Copher, 2005), as well as sequence analysis
to assess the ordering and duration of multiple transition events simultaneously (Barban & Billari, 2012; Schoon et al., 2009). These studies found,
for example, that the active engagement and simultaneous commitment to
multiple meaningful social roles is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and well-being. For instance, in the UK context, 26-year-olds who
were delaying commitment to adult roles, who were focusing on only two
transitions, that is, education and work without establishing a committed
relationship or their own home, expressed reduced levels of life satisfaction
and higher levels of drinking (Schoon et al., 2012). Furthermore, through comparison of different birth cohorts, changes in trends and transition experiences can be revealed, and comparisons across countries can inform on the
role of different sociocultural contexts in shaping the timing and sequencing
of transition events (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011; Schulenberg & Schoon, 2012).
A DIVERSE PATHWAYS VIEW
Most men and women want to have it all, a career, a family, and a home
of their own. Yet, social and gender differences in transition experiences persist, as do gender specific expectations and career templates. As more women
have entered the workforce and have taken on new roles, they have retained
their position as the person responsible for childcare (Crompton, 2006; Moen
& Roehling, 2005). Women, wives and mothers, increasingly try to maintain
continuous employment, even if this means to work in low-paid jobs that
enable flexible working times, and continue to do most of society’s care work
without pay (Moen & Roehling, 2005). They are also more likely than men
to drop out of the labor market completely, mostly to look after their families and children (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006; Moen, 2003). For women,

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

the roles as mother and labor-force participant appear to be interdependent
and in conflict, while for men their roles as father and worker are more independent and easier to combine, although many men, husbands and fathers,
have to put in long hours at work—and try to help out at the home (Moen &
Roehling, 2005).
Pathways to independent adulthood have diversified, especially for
women who have to develop more flexible strategies to combine different
social roles. Yet the diversity of pathways is not unlimited, and a set of
models mostly account for a large majority of individual lives (Levy &
Widmer, 2013; Schoon, Ross & Martin, 2009). These templates are shaped by
social background, gender, ethnicity, previous transition experiences as well
as institutional structures, suggesting bounded diversity. Some have argued
that there has been a polarization of transitions, differentiating between
fast versus slow transitions (Jones, 2002) or problematic versus smooth
pathways (Kerckhoff, 1993; McLanahan, 2004), reflecting the accumulation
of (dis-)advantages. There is however also a large group of young people
who fall between this dualism, who develop distinct strategies in navigating
the multiple demands of becoming an independent adult, juggling the
resources available to them, and finding adaptive solutions (Schoon, 2014).
Moving beyond a dualistic conceptualisation of transition experiences, I
suggest a diverse pathways view, taking into account human plasticity and
the potential for change. For example, defying the notion of a predetermined
trajectory, a considerable number of young people are able to turn round
an initially problematic transition, such as early school leaving (Schoon &
Duckworth, 2010) or early parenthood (Furstenberg, 2003; Schoon & Polek,
2011) and lead a happy and satisfied life. Finding a supportive partner or
support from the family and wider social community, for example, can play
a vital role. Moreover, participation in lifelong learning can have a significant protective effect by keeping adults close to a changing labor market
(Evans, Schoon, & Weale, 2013). Especially during conditions of growing
social inequality and economic uncertainty, workers of the future will be
expected to learn new skills throughout their labor market career, not just
at the beginning. This might also imply shifting to new lines of work when
old ones have become obsolete.
There is considerable dynamic in life course transitions, and each transition
can bring new challenges and opportunities, including the potential for
change. The potential for change is however not unlimited, is not always
positive, and depends on the constellations of pre-existing and concurrent
circumstances. The life course can be understood as a series of interlinked
sequence of status profiles, characterized by consistency and coherence as
well as discontinuity and change, involving the reorganization of previous
patterns. This dynamic and the interdependence of role transitions suggests

Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View

9

the need for new conceptual models as well as empirical methods that
account for the multidimensional and multidirectional associations between
transition events, their antecedents, and associated outcomes.
SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
Previous research has shown a convergence in the male and female transition
to adulthood, with an increasing female participation in higher education
and employment. There is however considerable heterogeneity in transition
experiences due to persisting gender and social class differences. Current
policy thinking is still dominated by the assumption of a linear career path
moving from full-time education to full-time employment. Crucially, what is
lacking is the recognition that careers extend beyond conceptions of full-time,
uninterrupted education and paid work, into other domains of people’s lives,
such as family careers and other social roles. The findings presented here suggest the need for the revision of currently dominant templates and the introduction of new, more flexible and diversified life course models, taking into
account the experiences of different subgroups of the population, their need
for career path flexibility, which includes support for occasional time-outs,
second chances, and life-long learning. Existing social arrangements provide
guidelines for action and shared expectations and beliefs, yet they are outmoded conventions regarding education, paid work, unpaid care, and gender differences that hinder the development of new career regimes that integrate education and learning, work and family-related commitments as well
as wider social contacts across the life course. The findings draw attention
to the need for a more flexible, dynamic, and multilevel conceptualization
of transition experiences—a diverse pathways view. Methodologically this
implies the use of both population- and person-based approaches. Recognizing the interdependence of transitions, their dynamics, and the role of the
wider sociohistorical context in shaping individual aspirations and beliefs,
offers new avenues for future research on the changing transition to adulthood and its implication for social and individual development.
To adequately map changing trends in transition experiences, it is important to collect comparable information across different age and birth cohorts,
ideally on an international level and with large enough sample sizes to represent experiences for different subgroups of the population. To capture the
dynamics in transition experiences, it is vital to collect longitudinal data, following up on individuals over time. Over time, new measures that reflect
new developments and changes in everyday social relations and experiences
(e.g., involving new communication technologies) have to be introduced.
Moreover, great care has to be taken to also ensure comparability with previous measures, such as indicators of occupational status. Furthermore, it is

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

important to collect good data on both structural and contextual factors as
well as individual experiences and preferences, requiring the collaboration
across disciplines, such as economics, sociology, psychology, demography,
and epidemiology. In addition, research of the future on gendered transition experiences should also take into account biological and physiological
differences; for example, changes occurring during puberty, that can have
long-term influences regarding the timing and sequencing of transition, as
well as cross-cultural and ethnic variations. Not only should variations in
transition experiences be accurately depicted and analyzed but it is also necessary to discern the meaning and mechanisms of these differences in more
detail.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The analysis and writing of this essay were supported by a grant from the
UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): RES-594-28-0001 (Centre
for the Study of Learning and Lifechances in the Knowledge Economies and
Societies [Llakes]) and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB).
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FURTHER READING
Schoon, I. (2010). Childhood cognitive ability and adult academic attainment: Evidence from three British cohort studies. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 1(3),
241-258. http://www.journal.longviewuk.com/index.php/llcs/article/view/
293/285.

INGRID SCHOON SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Ingrid Schoon is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at the
Institute of Education, University of London and Research Professor at the
Wissenschafts Zentrum Berlin (WZB). She is coordinating the international
post-doctoral Fellowship programme “PATHWAYS to Adulthood,” funded
by the Jacobs Foundation, and is project leader for the ESRC funded Centre
for Learning and Lifechances in the Knowledge Economies and Societies

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(Llakes). Her research interests are focused on issues of human development
across the life course, in particular the transition from dependent childhood
to independent adulthood; social and gender equalities in attainment,
health and well-being; the study of risk and resilience and the realization of
individual potential in a changing sociohistorical context. She is currently
consulting editor for Developmental Psychology, member of the editorial
board of the “Journal of Adolescence,” “European Psychologist,” “Advances
in Life Course Research,” and “Longitudinal and Life Course Studies.” Her
publications include over 100 scholarly articles, a monograph on “Risk and
Resilience,” and two coedited books on “Transitions from school-to-work”
(with Rainer K. Silbereisen) and “Gender differences in aspiration and
attainment” (with Jacquelynne S. Eccles), both published by Cambridge
University Press.
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