My Generation And My Parents Essay

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Society is continually changing to complement an increasingly diversifying world. The collective set of behaviours within a specific time period can serve as a loose framework for that generation, where the social patterns can be analysed to predict future response. Various factors in a generation can manipulate the view of an individual’s personal image as well as their position in a social community. Weinrich and Saunderson (2003) emphasised on identity having ‘a structural representation of the individual’s existential experience’ while Erikson (1968) stressed the importance of ‘sameness and continuity’. This paper will take both definitions into account as it explores the difference between my generation and my parents’, with an in-depth focus on the economy and employment and how it contributed to the overall outlook of identity.

In my parent’s generation, industrial production brought forth the predominant principle of a ‘family-wage economy’, where a nuclear family relied on the support of the working wage as well as being self-efficient around the household to maintain a healthy lifestyle (Tilly and Scott, 1978). Therefore, my Dad was the primary bread winner. This notion promoted the generational explanation of what it is meant and required to be a man and a woman in a modern society. Despite the upheaval of the feminist movement, one’s biography was dictated by social patterns concerning various issues such as employment, preventing one’s control of their ‘individual autonomy’ (Beck, 1992). Nationally in 1979, 40% of women were in the workforce compared to a staggering 74% for men (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). This statistic reinforces gender norms providing someone who is born in this generation, a pre-co...

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... they find relatable. A body of individuals that does so is advantageous for an institution as they are better equipped to any circumstances that may come their way.

Those born in a particular generation are faced with their own set of societal issues. The economy from my parents’ generation was much more stable compared to my generation where unemployment rates are increasing. This meant that many from my parents’ time would find work in industrial production where the social pattern was for men to be the primary bread winner in contrast to people from my generation where there would be continual need to improve their credentials in the hope of being employed. Therefore, although there was a restriction of one’s biography, identity was used as a tool in establishing solidarity, while today there is a focus for an identity to be flexible, adaptable and unique.

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