Early Life Transitions of Canadian Women: A Cohort Analysis of Timing, Sequences, and Variations

This paper looks into the timing and sequences of early life transitions of Canadian women using data from the 1995 General Social Survey of Family. Six events occurring in early adulthood are examined: school completion, first job, home-leaving, first cohabitation, first marriage, and first birth. Our analysis of birth cohorts spanning 60 years shows that the biggest changes in timing occurred in school completion and start of work; that the trajectories involving work before marriage have gained popularity among later cohorts; and that education appreciably delays early life transitions.

[1]  Ronald R. Rindfuss,et al.  Becoming an Adult: The Long View@@@Into One's Own: From Youth to Adulthood in the United States 1920-1975. , 1991 .

[2]  Theodore Hershberg,et al.  Social Change and Transitions to Adulthood in Historical Perspective , 1976 .

[3]  L. George.  Sociological Perspectives on Life Transitions , 1993 .

[4]  B. Neugarten,et al.  Sociological Perspectives on the Life Cycle , 1973 .

[5]  Dennis P. Hogan,et al.  Transitions and Social Change: The Early Lives of American Men , 1981 .

[6]  Y. Péron,et al.  Marriage and conjugal life in Canada , 1992 .

[7]  G. Spanier,et al.  The Life Cycle of American Families: an Expanded Analysis , 1980, Journal of family history.

[8]  M. Katz,et al.  Youth and Early Industrialization in a Canadian City , 1978, American Journal of Sociology.

[9]  T. K. Burch,et al.  Tracing the Life Courses of Canadians , 1994 .

[10]  J. Modell,et al.  8 – Transitions: Patterns of Timing , 1978 .

[11]  C. Erickson,et al.  Transitions. The Family and Life Course in Historical Perspective. , 1978 .

[12]  R. Rodgers,et al.  The Family Cycle in Twentieth Century Canada. , 1981 .

[13]  E. Gee.  The life course of Canadian women: An historical and demographic analysis , 1986 .

[14]  G. Elder.  1 – Family History and the Life Course , 1978 .

[15]  Glen H. Elder,et al.  Family History and the Life Course , 1977, Journal of family history.

[16]  T. Hareven,et al.  [The history of the family and the complexity of social change. Part 1]. , 1991, Cahiers d'histoire.

[17]  F. Weinert,et al.  Human development and the life course : multidisciplinary perspectives , 1988 .

[18]  Kathleen Gerson,et al.  Hard choices : how women decide about work, career, and motherhood , 1985 .

[19]  P. C. Glick.  Updating the life cycle of the family. , 1977 .