Gender and Generations: Using a Generational Framework to Rethink Continuity and Change in the Gender Order

Abstract

It is now common for youth studies scholars to advocate for research that connects a focus on youth “transitions” and youth “cultures”, particularly as they intersect in the context of social change across many spheres, including the gender order. A risk in the rise of a focus on bridging these established traditions of youth research is that a simplistic “middle ground” emerges that diminishes the important insights from previous research within each tradition and fails to engage with sophisticated contemporary framings of social structure and action. This article argues concepts from the sociology of generations can help bridge the gap between the study of youth transitions and youth cultu..