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A few additions: We Boomers got into "finding" ourselves, along with our jobs (I only made it to Head Nurse before I learned about dirty office politics; now I don't want to be in charge of anything), and were the first generation to get divorced in large numbers. Oh, our mothers, and even a few of our grandmothers, got divorced, but for our generation it seemed almost like a "right of passage" for some. We were all about "growing" and if the DH didn't want to grow along with us, well forget about him! Some of the DHs were the same, of course, but it's usually the woman who initiates divorce
The youg moms at our pediatric practice breast feed, or rather I should say some of them feed breast milk. They apparently think it's worth their time to pump the breast milk and then give it to the kid in a bottle, something I, as their sometime counselor, think is crazy. Who has that kind of time?
As far as "Keeping up with the Joneses", it seems that's a forever thing, or at least has been since WW II. In my mom's day (she was, according to NJ's chart a GI generation, and she actually did serve in the Army Nurse Corps in WW II) this meant getting all the new appliances that were coming out. I can remember it being a big deal when we got a DRYER. My aunt bragged about getting a GAS FURNACE. (In my part of PA most people heated with coal in the 1950s.) By the time I was a young adult it was foreign cars (supposedly made much better, a concept my dad, who had worked his tail off in the steel industry never accepted), then MICROWAVE OVENS.
Now my kids are getting all this electronic crap.
I don't know. I think women have made progress, but I wish we'd quit fighting each other so much.
I wasn't yet born when JFK was shot, but I have very vivid memories of the Challenger explosion. I was in lit class, watching it live. One of my earliest memories is sitting in the living room with my parents as they watched coverage of Nixon's impeachment. Tiananmen Square occurred during my Junior year of college. I am the quintessential X-er.
Generational theory only gets you so far. I was born in 59' and that technically puts me in the tail end of the Babyboom Generation.
I have often felt I have very little in common with the older boomers. By the time I got out of college in the 80's, jobs were hard to come by. The material prosperity that most of the early boomers took for granted was much diminished. The people who were entrants to the job market in the 80's quickly realized they were in a totally different era. I work for myself, but my wife works in an organization and all her bosses are early "boomers". The change in attitudes is quite profound. The early boomers have quite a sense of entitlement and quite an expectation that their salary and benefits should automatically increase.
I usually find myself quite alone in that I am a "boomer" who has sympathy for the X'ers and the Millenial Generation. The generational dichotomy is not as absolute as some say it is. However, it is a "fault line" that is creating divides upon political and social lines. It gives me great concern for the future of this nation.
A few additions: We Boomers got into "finding" ourselves, along with our jobs (I only made it to Head Nurse before I learned about dirty office politics; now I don't want to be in charge of anything), and were the first generation to get divorced in large numbers. Oh, our mothers, and even a few of our grandmothers, got divorced, but for our generation it seemed almost like a "right of passage" for some. We were all about "growing" and if the DH didn't want to grow along with us, well forget about him! Some of the DHs were the same, of course, but it's usually the woman who initiates divorce
The youg moms at our pediatric practice breast feed, or rather I should say some of them feed breast milk. They apparently think it's worth their time to pump the breast milk and then give it to the kid in a bottle, something I, as their sometime counselor, think is crazy. Who has that kind of time?
As far as "Keeping up with the Joneses", it seems that's a forever thing, or at least has been since WW II. In my mom's day (she was, according to NJ's chart a GI generation, and she actually did serve in the Army Nurse Corps in WW II) this meant getting all the new appliances that were coming out. I can remember it being a big deal when we got a DRYER. My aunt bragged about getting a GAS FURNACE. (In my part of PA most people heated with coal in the 1950s.) By the time I was a young adult it was foreign cars (supposedly made much better, a concept my dad, who had worked his tail off in the steel industry never accepted), then MICROWAVE OVENS.
Now my kids are getting all this electronic crap.
I don't know. I think women have made progress, but I wish we'd quit fighting each other so much.
I relate to what you have written, too!
You are soooo right about divorce - it was considered a right of passage. It is nothing to meet folks at my age w/ 2 or 3 divorces, especially here in the South, where it seems my generation believed in starter marriages (rather than living together) and a quickie no fault divorce b/f age 25.
Dear me.
Yes, the office politics . . . for some reason . . . we were often very naive about how to handle ourselves w/ our peers once we did manage to break into management - mostly b/c we had so few - IF ANY - role models and/or mentors.
I agree - I want to see young women working together. I am big into mentoring and have taken several young women under my wing in the last decade. We really need to get women to understand that there is no future in competition with one another - celebrate each other's successes - and build upon it - collectively.
Okay - back to the point NJGoat was making in re: to how women seem to be turning to embrace a more maternal role.
Now, I think I can pretty well speak to this. I was big into Gloria Steinhem, Betty Frieden, et al. I lived through the sexual revolution (as it were) and in 1970, I was a hippie art student and peacenik (but supported our troops - as they were my friends, neighbors, classmates, and cousins) . . . I was against an UNDECLARED war. Anyway, I know for a fact that my generation of women were eager to 1. get equal pay 2. get our foot in the corporate "C" suite 3. put off having our children til our mid to late 30s, unlike our own mothers 4. typically limited our family to 2 children, b/c of our belief in "zero population growth" 5. breastfed and made our own baby food 6. were into all sorts of food movements, from macrobiotics to veganism
Now, women only a FEW YEARS OLDER than Boomers were the ones who refused to breastfeed as they felt it was "old-fashioned." In the 50s, it was de rigeur to give baby a bottle. It was a STATUS SYMBOL to have a bottle sterilizer at home and to be able to run to play bridge while handing the babysitter a bottle. This all changed with the Feminist movement, wh/ based part of its message on the objectification of women and breasts as natural food delivery systems rather than appendages evolved for the sole titillation (ok, couldn't help that one) of males fixated on breasts as sexual objects.
Anyway, having clarified that . . . the rest of NJGoat's supposition is very much worth exploring, cause I have been watching how women have evolved in relationship to their roles as professional career person and motherhood.
My generation was fighting like hell, well into the 80s, for the right to move up the corporate ladder. I was in the trenches and yes, I snagged my COO title along the way. (YAY ME! lol) But I have been watching and listening . . . and during the late-90s, I realized that Gen Xers, were having all these discussions as they entered adulthood about how they didn't want to have to prove they were Super Mommy and Power B$tch Career Woman, as their mommies had. Hmmmm. Then I became aware of Mommy Wars - where stay at home moms were sneering at career mommies and vice versa. It became a very big "us against them" kinda thing. I was stunned. My generation had worked so hard to emphasize female bonding, lifting each other up, working together for The Cause. Now these younger women were downright malicious towards one another. DANG!
Then my stepkids got married and started having kids after 2000, and I realized these women wanted to get an education, yes . . . wanted to have respect as a professional, yes . . .and wanted to be Mommy (especially if they could buy a cool stroller and outfit their kids w/ the latest from Baby Gap) but what they really wanted was to make enuff money to have a Nanny, lol. That was a big trend for a while cause a big chunk of Gen Xers have bought into the "keeping up with the Jones's" mentality and they enjoy flashing their status symbols, and Nannies were def at the top of that list.
But many GenX mommies were trying to figure out how to have a career - even work part time - but figure things out so they could have more "hands on" time with their kids.
Of course, things kinda fell all to hell w/ everyone's personal plans after 2008, b/c women were holding onto jobs or having to return to the workforce if they could find jobs b/c their spouses had lost their jobs. Still waiting to see how this all turns out.
Now we have Millenials who are of child bearing age but it appears many of them are deciding to be childless couples, or defer their child bearing until their 30s, or (the big trend!) ADOPT. This generation doesn't seem to feel the urge to procreate the way Gen Xers have. Millenials are putting off having kids and seem to reject discussions about biological clocks (a term Boomers invented) . . . b/c they say - We'll just adopt.
As for other signs that women are reclaiming their nesting instincts in a big way . . . women are becoming DIY experts on their own and altho Gen Xers are still pretty much married to brand names and status symbols . . . Millenials are into retro, recycling and repurposing. Now, I think there is some overlap w/ GenXers on this one . . . and I think it has to do w/ what stage GenXers are w/parenthood (and their finances). But as far as women wanting to spend more time nesting and at home . . . just look at all the women who have become professional bloggers and are staying at home, making a living doing social marketing.
HOWEVER - Millenials are transforming what our nests even are . . . they are reclaiming boxcars and making them into homes (in a similar fashion to what Boomer hippies did w/ old school buses and vans). Millenials are paving the way here in the USA w/ innovation in best use of reduced space requirements, too. They are using Japanese models of space design and assessing their carbon footprint along w/ the economic benefits of "living small"- whereas GenXers quickly latched onto the biggest houses they could afford (or not! wacko loan products ending in foreclosures!) as quickly as they could. Boomers typically started out with small homes and over 20 plus years worked their way into the big house at age 45-50, but their Gen X kids expected the big house (over 2500 sq. ft, preferably) at age 30-35.
So I believe women have, indeed, started putting less emphasis on proving they are Super Woman and more emphasis on segregating their roles - and alloting time out for having kids unless they can figure out how to integrate the two roles by working from home. I also think the snobbery that has been pervasive w/ GenXers as far as the accoutrements of success has been basically eradicated w/ Millenials, who seem to be happy to live in a studio, sleep on the floor, ride a bike or retrofit their parents' old Benz to run off vegetable oil - as long as they have the best technology available. That means constantly upgrading and that takes $$$ - so Millenials will forego many of the comforts of life if it means they can shift their funds to buy whatever it is they consider indispensable technology.
Well, enuff of that. I believe a portion of GenXers and the majority of Millenials are into nesting big time - and for Millenials - the nest can be in their Boomer parents' basement, lol -- as long as the WiFi signal is awesomely robust. :-)
Marvelous post!
For years now, having never heard of Strauss-Howe, I've had the same bee in my bonnet about how every other generation rebels or tries to fix what their parents have done. Now, I never thought along the archetype model set up in the Generations studies obviously.
Wonder of wonders, TIME magazine's cover story is this:
Generational theory only gets you so far. I was born in 59' and that technically puts me in the tail end of the Babyboom Generation.
I have often felt I have very little in common with the older boomers. By the time I got out of college in the 80's, jobs were hard to come by. The material prosperity that most of the early boomers took for granted was much diminished. The people who were entrants to the job market in the 80's quickly realized they were in a totally different era. I work for myself, but my wife works in an organization and all her bosses are early "boomers". The change in attitudes is quite profound. The early boomers have quite a sense of entitlement and quite an expectation that their salary and benefits should automatically increase.
I usually find myself quite alone in that I am a "boomer" who has sympathy for the X'ers and the Millenial Generation. The generational dichotomy is not as absolute as some say it is. However, it is a "fault line" that is creating divides upon political and social lines. It gives me great concern for the future of this nation.
I agree with the bold. My DH, while technically a "Boomer" has two older brothers who are from the previous generation, if you want to call it that. Obviously, they're all a part of their own little family's "generation" as they were all born within five years.
I disagree with your assessment of the early Boomers.
I feel like the odd duck out regarding Magritte's post. I definitely recognize the trend toward bigger and better housing in some of my generational peers, but I also see a strong interest in living small, e.g., Tumbleweed Houses. Personally, I'm not so enamored with living large. Where I do see a bigger and better mentality is in child-raising. As the "neglected" generation, we appear obsessed with making sure that our kids have the absolute best educations and extra-curricular activities, even if it requires buying a ill-fitting house in the bland and beige suburbs to make it happen.
Nomad generations (recessive) are born during an Awakening, a time of social ideals and spiritual agendas, when young adults are passionately attacking the established institutional order. Nomads grow up as under-protected children during this Awakening, come of age as alienated, post-Awakening adults, become pragmatic midlife leaders during a Crisis, and age into resilient post-Crisis elders. Due to this location in history, such generations tend to be remembered for their fast-paced, alienated rising-adult years and their midlife years of pragmatic leadership. Their main societal contributions are in the area of liberty, survival and honor. The current Nomads are Generation X (born 1961-1981).
I fit into this archetype. I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Those were times where we did run the streets and have more freedom than kids today. Coming of age in the 90s as teens, we were exposed to alt rock and while I'm sure the older generation would scoff that was our "anthem" music for change. Musicians like Rage Against the Machine, U2, Ani DiFranco were our soundtrack. The riotgrrrl was born during this time period too.
As an adult, I prize personal liberty for all as well as equality for all. I stay at home with my children, though I am college educated. I was a single mother but held no compunction upon assuming a more traditional role upon marriage.
Quote:
Hero generations (dominant) are born after an Awakening, during a time of individual pragmatism, self-reliance, and laissez faire. Heroes grow up as increasingly protected post-Awakening children, come of age as team-oriented young optimists during a Crisis, emerge as energetic, overly-confident midlifers, and age into politically powerful elders attacked by another Awakening. Due to this location in history, such generations tend to be remembered for their collective military triumphs in young adulthood and their political achievements as elders. Their main societal contributions are in the area of community, affluence, and technology. The current Hero's are the GI Generation (born 1914-1928) and the Millenials (born 1982-2000).
My husband is a Millenial. Community, overconfidence, optimism and energy are his hallmark traits. He was definitely raised in a more protective atmosphere than I was. His Millenial friends are inventive, creative, hardworking and good people. They do not fit the older generation's assumptions of lazy 20somethings.
I don't know. I definitely think there is something to this theory. I won't try to tell Boomers or earlier Nomads their business. However, I've sat around with friends discussing how so many women of my mother's (boomer) generation are so similar. How many of our dads have the same POV on life and family. I don't think this is just a coincidence.
I feel like the odd duck out regarding Magritte's post. I definitely recognize the trend toward bigger and better housing in some of my generational peers, but I also see a strong interest in living small, e.g., Tumbleweed Houses. Personally, I'm not so enamored with living large. Where I do see a bigger and better mentality is in child-raising. As the "neglected" generation, we appear obsessed with making sure that our kids have the absolute best educations and extra-curricular activities, even if it requires buying a ill-fitting house in the bland and beige suburbs to make it happen.
Are you part of the GenX'ers?
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