From East to West: Gendered Patterns of Work-Family Life Courses in Formerly Divided Europe

Objective. This study explored how employment and family life courses in young adulthood and their relationship with subjective well-being (SWB) in older age. We focus on life trajectories between 1945 and 1990 under contrasting capitalist and former socialist countries, examining differences by sex and country. Methods. We used data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for participants 50+ in East/West Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, and France. Participants were surveyed on health outcomes and retrospectively reconstructed their life courses across employment and family domains. We used sequence and cluster analysis for states between 18 and 30 years, for the domains employment, marital status, and children. Descriptive comparisons across clusters were made using t -tests, ANOVA and Games-Howell post-hoc-tests, as well as chi-square tests and Bonferroni post-hoc-tests. Results. We identified distinct gender-specific trajectories, with fewer differences between Eastern and Western European men compared to women. Eastern European women reported more continuous workforce participation, while Western European women were more likely to exit the workforce or work part-time after family formation. Differences in SWB in later life varied across countries and sex as well as life courses – e.g., early marriage, single parenthood, and long-term unemployment were consistently related to lower SWB across countries. Conclusions. This study underscores how socio-political contexts shape work and family life courses. Despite differing policies, some groups are at risk of consistently experiencing lower SWB. This suggests that additional factors beyond life courses warrant attention in respect to health disparities in older age.