1 The Mexican International Family Strengths Conference and Study Tour Cuernavaca, Mxico June, 2005

LIFE COURSE THEORY WITH A GENDER PERSPECTIVE FOR THE STUDY OF FAMILIES Mercedes Blanco Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social (CIESAS-MEXICO-D.F.)

INTRODUCTION 1 Among other important analytic dimensions, I think two of them turn out to be especially relevant for the study of the general themes of this conference, that is the building of family relations and resiliency. One of these two dimensions is the theoretical consideration and the methodological operation of temporality and the other is a gender perspective. Taking into account the previous ideas, the main purpose of this paper is to present an interdisciplinary proposal that makes feasible research on a great variety of events regarding family dynamics, among them, the analysis of how families --and also each one of its members-- confront adverse or hard situations and how they solve or adapt to them. Although in this opportunity I wont present any empirical research, the general spirit of the proposals contained in this paper is to contribute to the development of some elements that turn out to be of indispensable consideration in the research of family phenomena, as is the case of methodological aspects.

2 Thus, the specific proposal of this paper lies on the combination and the search for parallelisms between the life course theory and a gender perspective. The life course theoretical orientation aims to study the still complex relation between the individual lives and the social change, among other things, this is expressed through the analysis of how larger social and historical forces shape the unfolding of the individual as well as the collective (families, cohorts) life courses. This way, it provides a strategy to deal with the dimension of temporality since it points directly to the analysis of processes in the long run that are of essential importance in the building of family relations. The gender perspective also points to the basic fact that almost always family units are formed by men and women and I dont mean precisely as partners but, for example, as mother and children. Also, very frequently, families are formed by several or, at least, two generations; this means we have to take into account the possibility of unequal relations between its members, no to use the conventional terms of subordination and oppression. The paper includes an exposition of the development and the main princip les on which the life course is based (life-span development, historical time and place, the principle of timing, linked lives and human agency), in fact, in this opportunity, this aspect is greatly emphasized with the aim to make known --at least in Mexico, probably this is not so in other countries, specially the USA-- a theoretical perspective relatively unknown in our country. Then I proceed to establish some similarities or parallelisms between a gender perspective and the life course that, among other things, is based on three main analytical axes: the need of making the invisible, visible, the verification of the existence of a variety of differences between men and women and the question of how these differences became inequalities.

3 This way, that is, through the combination of the life course theory and the gender perspective, the aim is to contribute to a multilevel and multimethod research and be able to attain an interdisciplinary analysis of the building of family relations and cumulative processes.

THE LIFE COURSE AS A THEORETICAL APPROACH In the social sciences in general, throughout the decades --and even in this first years of the XXI century-- one of the main theoretical and empirical concerns has been the analysis of the link betwee n individual and society. Depending on the epochs, the disciplinary points of view, and the analytical emphasis, such a connection has been expressed, among other ways, as dichotomies. Among the variety of theoretical frames that from the social sciences had made proposals and have carried out empirical research, the so-called life course perspective constitutes a platform certainly useful for the study of the relationship between individual lives and social change. The life course theoretical framework arose, form the beginning, as a proposal nurtured form contributions of different disciplines (specially, sociology, history, psychology and demography). It was in the seventies that this approach began its development, being very important from then until now, the proposals of his main founder, the North American sociologist Glen Elder, as well as the highly valuable contributions of the historian Tamara Hareven. In 1974 Elder published his first book entitled Children Of The Great Depression, Social Change In Life Experience (1974 [1999]) where he analyzes the general theme of family adaptations in a context of crisis. For this study the author had a special advantage, to have access to longitudinal information that came from a research that began in the

4 thirties in the USA, with follow-ups of the same population (men and women born at the beginning of the twenties) until the first years of the seventies. For Glen Elder, having access to this type of archives propitiated, from the beginning, that this author could put forward, among other things, the great importance of linking the temporal dimension with the age variable, and at the same time, both of this elements with the historical context. The longitudinal studies are researches that, from the beginning, are planned for the long term, and this only fact, that is, being able to follow the same individuals as they are growing up and getting old, provides information and different points of view than when the study is retrospective; unfortunately, in Mexico we dont have this type of longitudinal studies. Although retrospective studies also consider the long term, the researchers have to trust not only in the memory of the individuals but take into account the inevitable reelaborations around past events that every human being tend to do. In Children Of The Great Depression (1974 [1999]) Elder was also interested in another essential relationship, that between family and work, when at that moment --the seventies-- even the womens studies were fighting for the acknowledgment of the invisibility of the domestic sphere. In this sense, is also outstanding the authors proposal that the family cannot be conceptualized in one moment in time since the family unit experiments constant change, therefore, researchers require some analytical tools for being able to study the long term familial and individual processes. With this initial conceptualization the author was contributing to the questioning of a traditional view of and ideal urban nuclear family as a a-historical and unchangeable model. Finally, although with no explicit gender perspective, this book documents the differences that exist between male and female vital trajectories and examines domestic

5 roles in the home as well as the traditional roles assigned to women (as wives, mothers and homemakers) in detriment of the possibility of having access to other options in life. Now I will talk a little bit of Tamara Hareven; form the final years of the sixties, as a historian, she ascribed herself to the general trend known as the new social history that seek to document the experience of ordinary people or, as the oral historians would said, give voice to the voiceless (Jotuard, 1986). In the seventies Hareven became an expert on the study of family history and in this decade she gets in contact with the life course perspective, precisely through the work of Glen Elder (Hareven, 2000). So, it can be said, that Hareven emphasizes the importance of the temporal dimension --of course, historical for her-- in the life course framework that, from the beginning had posed as a main purpose to analyze how larger social and historical forces shape the unfolding of the individual as well as the collective (families, cohorts) life courses. Hareven points out that the history of the family must be an interdisciplinary field that can be able to use conceptual tools and models from history, demography, sociology, anthropology and psychology (Hareven, 1971). One way to put into practice this affirmation is by creating an academic publication with this multidisciplinary spirit that, within some years, acquired a great prestige so, in this way, she founded the Journal Of Family History, becoming her editor for more than twenty years. Since the beginning of her professional career, and always interested in the study of the family and the relationship between family and work, Hareven conceived this unit as a link between individual lives and social change processes, against traditional positions that view the family as an static and isolated unit (Hareven, 1974); she applied this perspective during many years to the study of nineteenth-century North American families and, since

6 the eighties, she developed comparative studies with countries such as Japan and China (Hareven, 2000a). In 1978 a book compiled by Hareven is published --the title: Transitions --. In this volume she and Elder have each one an article that makes specific reference to the life course theoretical framework. Hareven writes about the different type s of temporalities and their synchronization. This author makes the proposal (probably inspired by some other historians) about the analytical possibility of examining different types of time clocks or temporalities. First she talks of a family time and a socio-historical time but pointing out that is not a mere reductionist scheme that distinguishes between two dimensions, the micro-social and the macro-structural, that is, Hareven is not sustaining linear interpretations or mechanical causalities. In several articles published in the seventies Hareven (1977 a, b) develops the proposal of the intersection and synchronization of different types of temporalities and afterwards she finally considers three types of timings: the individual, the familial and the historical (Hareven, 1991 [2000]).
2

Individual time make reference to the personal biography and one of its indicators is chronological age. The crucial question is how people time and organize their entry into and exit from various roles over the ir life course (Hareven, 1991 [2000]: 154). Family time makes reference, among other issues, to demographic events such as getting married and becoming a parent. Here we already find the intersection of individual times and family times that could present, simultaneously, conflicts and harmonizations. Historical time, in a broad sense, makes reference to the macro-structural context and conveys information such as the political and economic situation of a country, region and/or city, and also the main trends of the basic demographic variables such as fertility, mortality and migration.

7 This way, Hareven affirms, the life course paradigm is developmental and historical by its very nature. Its essence is the synchronization of individual time, family time, and historical time. (Hareven, 1994 [2000]: 128-129). In this same book entitled Transitions (1978) Elder makes reference to the conceptualization of the family as a setting of mutually contingent individual careers, whose dynamics shape the family as a unit (Cfr. Elder, 1978). That is to say, the family is not conceived as one organizative unit, that always acts as a cohesive group and that goes through an inevitable ordered set of stages, the life course views the family as a small collective of individuals with interdependent life histories. This approach brings sensitivity to the continual interchange between the family and other institutional sectors, to the interdependence of individual life history and family history, and to the impact of historical change in life patterns (Elder, 1978: 18). Another main aspect, from which the book acquires its title, is the idea that the life course approach examines precisely transitions (in families and individuals) and not fixed stages as other frameworks do. That is, the life course follows the individual but in the context of family configurations and analyzes the synchronization (that doesnt necessarily mean harmonization) of individuals and family transitions in different domains (among others, demographic events, entering and leaving the labor market, migration, etc.) over time. This way, two are the main concepts of the life course analysis: trajectory and transition (Elder, 1985, 1991). The concept of trajectory refers to a lifeline or career, a pathway over the life span which may vary in direction, degree and rate of change (Elder, 1991: 63). This is very important to emphasize, that for the life course approach the trajectory does not prejudge the direction, degree, or rate of change of its course

8 (Elder, 1985: 31). Trajectories represent the long view of this analytic scope, and could also be defined by the aging process or by movement across the age structure (Elder, 1985: 31). The trajectories encompass a variety of domains (work, school, reproductive life, migration, etc.) that are interdependent. This way, this theoretical framework puts special emphasis on the interlocking of vital trajectories, may they be of one individual, of the relationship between several individuals or of families (of origin and/or procreation) (Blanco, 2002). Transition makes reference to specific events in certain moments of life, not necessarily predetermined or anticipated (among others, entering and leaving the labor market, marriage, divorce, becoming a parent or retiring). Transitions are always embedded in trajectories that give them distinctive form and meaning (Elder, 1985: 31). Transitions clearly mark changes in state, position or situation. What the life course approach poses is that transitions may happen at any moment (depending on the domain this would be more or less probable) without having to be predetermined. Anyhow, it is also true that a system of expectations around the chronological age still prevails; this also varies among different societies and social groups. The life course uses another concept, in relation to the previous two: turning point. With this expression this approach makes reference to a substantial change in the direction of ones life, whether subjective or objective (Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003: 8). That is, turning points are events or transitions that involve strong changes and that alter the direction of the life course, for example, the death of a very close relative. Not every turning point has to be disadvantageous, on the contrary, it may be very positive (for example, returning to school during mid-life) (Cfr. Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003).

9 These three concepts represent the basic analytical tools of the life course approach, they reflect the temporal nature of lives, conveying movement through historical and biographical time (Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003: 8). In parallel with these three concepts, the life course theoretical orientation guides research with five general principles:3 1) The principle of life-span development: human development and aging are lifelong processes. With this first principle the emphasis is put on the need to have a long-term perspective in research and analysis, since human development is a process that goes from birth to death. By studying lives over substantial periods of time we increase the potential interplay of social change with individual development (Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003: 11). 2) The principle of time and place: the life course of individuals is embedded and shaped by the historical times and places they experience over their lifetime. This principle points directly to the importance of taking into account the context. Thus, it considers that the life course of individuals is embedded and shaped by the historical time and the places each person experiments (Cfr. Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003). That is to say that individuals as well as human conglomerates, like birth cohorts 4 and/or generations, are influenced by the historical and spatial context, in a broad sense, not just geographical (for example, culture, meaning and value). Thus, the same historical event or change may differ in substance and meaning across different regions or nations (Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003: 12).

10 3) The principle of timing: the developmental antecedents and consequences of life transitions, events, and behavioral patterns vary according to their timing in a persons life. With this principle, as we saw before, the life course approach makes reference to the moment in a persons life when an event takes place. This way, the same event, for example, the death of a parent, will have a very different impact depending on the age of the son or daughter, and also the circumstances around such an event. Furthermore, the moment the event takes place may have long term consequences for the effects it may cause in successive transitions (cumulative advantages and disadvantages); for example, adolescent pregnancy most probably would cause effects on the educational and labor trajectories of the young women. This way, this principle poses that the impact of a transition or turning point is contingent (the possibility that something happens or no) to when it happens in the life of a person (Cfr. Elder, 2002). 4) The principle of linked lives: lives are lived interdependently and sociohistorical influences are expressed through this network of shared relationships. This principle states that human lives are always lived interdependently, that is in shared networks, and these networks are one way to express socio -historical influences (Cfr. Elder, 2002). Just precisely because lives are lived interdependently, transitions in one persons life often entail transitions for other people as well (Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003: 13). One of the main locus is the family; here we could find a series of related phenomena to study, among others, intergenerational relationships. 5) The principle of agency: individuals construct their own life course through the choices and actions they take within the opportunities and constraints of history and social circumstance.

11 This principle seeks to emphasize that individuals are not passive agents to whom structural influences and constraints are imposed. Individuals do make choices and take actions, and this way they build their own life course, although its true they exercise their free will within a structure of opportunities that convey, of course, limitations derived from social and historical circumstances (Cfr. Elder, 2001). Briefly speaking, individual agency is necessarily linked to social and historical forces, this way people can shape their lives, but they do so within socially structured boundaries, as reflected in historically changing opportunities and limitations (Shanahan and Elder, 2002: 176). The five fundamental principles, plus the three concepts previously explained, provide the most concise, yet inclusive, conceptual map of life course theory. This map enables studies of the life course to build upon a wider network of cross-disciplinary scholarship that emphasizes the role of time, context, and process (Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003: 16).

PARELLELISMS After having offered an explanation of the life course theoretical framework, this section is dedicated to the exercise of establishing some basic links or parallelisms between the life course and a gender perspective. Im not going to begin by defining what gender is because, among other things, this would require another paper, in addition to the fact that there is a huge bibliography --in different languages-- that takes care of this task. In the introduction I mentioned the concern with how to put into practice --in social sciences research-- the eclectic spirit that runs across the life course approach and the gender studies but also that the interdisciplinary proposals demand. One way, among many others, would be to adhere to the so-called mixed methodology that sustains the need,

12 among other issues, to combine quantitative and qualitative research 5 . Yet another way would be to begin, as several methodological orientations and researchers affirm, with the research questions, since they guide all the process. In this opportunity I decided to begin with an option that may seem to some as even old-fashioned --quite far away from the postmodern and postcolonial debates--, that is, bringing back some of the main points of discussion around the question that focuses on the existence or not of an specific gender methodology. First let me remember that methodology focuses precisely on the how of research, so even the most plain meaning of the word methodology, as a path or a way, or more properly said, as a procedure to fulfill the objective of knowing, of finding out about certain phenomenon, can lead us to the mentioned discussion of the feasibility of a gender methodology (Cfr. Cook and Fonow, 1990). So assuming the risk of exposing a series of aspects that may seem very well known or commonplace I think it s i not useless to summarize some basic points around the general discussion of the existence or not of a specific methodology to carry on gender studies: 1) Even though it is a theme that has been widely discussed through the years, (for example, in relation to what some authors called the feminist scholarship) (Alcoff y Potter, 1993; Goldsmith, 1998), it seems to be no consensus, or a general agreement, that con pronounce clearly for or against the existence of a specific methodology to carry on gender studies (or years before womens studies) or, finally, as the author Margit Eichler says: it depends (1997: 9). 2) If by any chance there could be any consensus, this could only sustain that there are no unique and absolute truths (Harding, 1998). This w ay, it is impossible to support the idea of the existence of only one method specifically feminist or designed for gender studies.

13 3) It seems to be widely accepted by feminists themselves that there is a distinctively feminist mode of inquiry, although there is by no means agreement on what this might mean or involve (Maynard, 1994: 10). Some authors say that what we can really expect is for the research projects to have a gender perspective (Cfr. Reinharz, 1992). 4) Without engaging in a discussion of what is, then, a perspective 6 versus a methodology, what can be taken as a starting point --as it happens in the majority of the research projects-- is the type of questions being asked (Maynard, 1994). 5) Adopting a feminist point of view or a gender perspective should make a difference in relation to when such a perspective is not assumed and, in fact, this is even more evident when we review, for example, three of the main analytical axes of much of the academic production with gender perspective, that is, 1) the need to make the invisible, visible; 2) the verification of the existence of a variety of differences between men and women; and 3) the question of how these differences became inequalities. It might be said, then, that one point of agree ment in this general discussion is a conclusive assertion, as simple as it seems: it is possible to talk of and apply a gender perspective. This reminds us that many years ago, as a first reaction of the so-called womens studies, it was reasonable to speak against and reject an androcentric, positivist and eurocentric science, and even some other adjectives like those of sexist, masculinist, and occidental science. This position, among other things, included the rejection of quantification (Harding, 1986) but fortunately, in the nineties, there were voices within the academic realm interested in promoting and carrying on this type of research with a gender perspective. That way, for example, and author said: in rejecting quantification, feminists have overlooked the contribution that research involving enumeration has made

14 to our knowledge and understanding of womens experiences. Further, the political potential of such work must not be underestimated (Maynard, 1994: 13). The need to refuse rigid schemes and closed and exclusive spaces is evident, as well as the need to reconcile, combine and establish interactive dialogues. One way, among others, to propitiate the development of this hard task is to make use of proposals originally put forward by certain disciplines, or take interdisciplinary products (as is the case of the life course approach), to raise research problems traditionally located in other fields. This way, following the mentioned systematization of the three axes, a scheme that has been handled by many authors, although in different ways (Cfr. Pacheco y Blanco, 1998), it can be established the following parallelisms between the life course approach and the gender perspective: 1) The first axis points, since the seventies 7, to the need of making the invisible, visible; the debate over the domestic work and the sexual division of labor became the cornerstone of this type of analysis. The gender perspective as well as the life course approach, both see, search and document differences between men and women; the analysis of these differences became more complex in time as other analytical axes were considered, now they are very well known, that is, social class, race, ethnicity; to all this the life course approach adds, very pertinently, another element that marks differences and inequalities: age (may it be individual or chronological or collective as in cohorts/generations). 2) The second axis has to do with the verification that there exist a series of differences between men and women. This way, in the eighties, it was necessary to document, in a variety of themes that could be located in various disciplines, the repeated situations of gender inequality.

15 In this period the social reproduction approach was very important in social sciences since this framework focused on the relationship of productive and reproductive spheres, of domestic and extra-domestic spheres, and of the connection between work and family. Regarding the two approaches we have been talking of all the time, both see, document and explain the continuities and discontinuities by gender, generation, social class, and as many other distinctions we may want to add. In this case, the life course approach provides us with a very useful analytical tool, the already mentione d of trajectory, that makes it possible to clearly distinguish between different processes throughout the time (remember the importance of temporality and the diachronic dimension) for men and women. 3) The third axis, that may be associated with the nineties, concentrates on a difficult question, that takes into consideration all the accumulated knowledge, and that points directly to the search of explanations: how do differences become or are transformed into inequalities? We reach the moment of trying to surpass the dichotomies, the binary oppositions, and the existence of diversity, complexity and heterogeneity are fully recognized; that is, every stance that can be characterized with the prefix multi, for example, the multidimensional, the multicausality, the multimethod, etc. Finally, relational concepts have the intention to contribute to the search for answers, as well as the articulation of levels, methods and theories. The connection of analytical axes such as the now familiar categories of social class, race, ethnicity, gender and generation, may now be retaken together by a gender perspective as well as by the life course approach.

16 BIBLIOGRAPHY Alcoff, L. y E. Potter, eds. (1993), Feminist Epistemologies, Routledge, New York. Blanco, M. (2002), Trabajo y familia: entrelazamiento de trayectorias vitales, Estudios Demogrficos y Urbanos, (51), Vol. 17, nm. 3, septiembre-diciembre, El Colegio de Mxico. Blanco, M. y E. Pacheco (2003), Trabajo y familia desde el enfoque del curso de vida: dos subcohortes de mujeres mexicanas, Revista Papeles de Poblacin , Nueva Epoca, Ao 9, No. 38, octubre-diciembre, Centro de Investigacin y Estudios Avanzados de la Poblacin, Universidad Autnoma del Estado de Mxico. Blanco, M. y E. Pacheco (2001), "Trayectorias laborales en la Ciudad de Mxico: un acercamiento exploratorio a la articulacin de las perspectivas cualitativa y cuantitativa", Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios del Trabajo, Ao 7, No. 13, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cook, J. y M. Fonow (1990) , Knowledge and Womens Interests: issues of epistemology and methodology in feminist sociological research, in Nielsen, J.M., ed., Feminist Research Methods , Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. Eichler, Margrit. Feminist Methodology, Current Sociology. Vol. 45, no. 2, april 1997, Feminism in the 1990s, Edited by Murray, G. y Tulloch, G., Sage publications, London, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Elder, G. ([1974] 1999), Children Of The Great Depression. Social Change In Life Experience, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. ------------- (1985), Perspectives on the life course, in Elder, G., ed., Life Course Dynamics. Trajectories and Transitions, 1968-1980, Cornell University Press.

17 ------------- (1991), "Lives and Social Change", in Heinz, Walter, ed., Theoretical Advances in Life Course Research. Status Passages and the Life Course, Volume I, Weinheim, Deutscher Studien Verlag. ------------ (2001), Life course: sociological aspects, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Smelser y Baltes, eds., Vol. 13, Oxford, Elsevier. ------------ (2002), Historical times and lives: a journey through time and space, Looking At Lives: American Longitudinal Studies Of The 20 th Century , New York, Russell Sage. Elder, G., M. Kirkpatrick y R. Crosnoe (2003), The emergence and development of life course theory, Handbook Of The Life Course, Mortimer y Shanahan, eds., Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, New York. Goldsmith, M. (1998), Feminismo e investigacin social. Nadando en aguas revueltas, in Bartra, E. (comp.), Debates en torno a una metodologa feminista, UAMXochimilco, Mxico. Harding, S. (1986), The Science Question In Feminism, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. Harding, S. (1998), Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Fe minisms, and Epistemologies , Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis. Hareven, T. (1971), The history of the family as an interdisciplinary field, Journal of Interdisciplinary History. ---------------- (1974), The family as a process: the historical study of the family cycle, Journal of Social History, vol. 7. num. 3.

18 ---------------- (1977a), Family time and industrial time: family and work in a planned corporation town, 1900-1924, in Hareven, T., ed., Family And Kin In Urban Communities , 1700-1930, New Viewpoints. ---------------- (1977b), Family time and historical time, Daedalus, 106, spring. Hareven, T., ed. (1978), Transitions. The family and the life course in historical perspective, Academic Press, New York. ---------------- (2000), Families, History, and Social Change. Life-Course and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, University of Delaware, Westview Press. --------------- (2000a), Between craft and industry: the subjective reconstruction of the life course of Kyotos traditional weavers, in Families, History, and Social Change. LifeCourse and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, University of Delaware, Westview Press. --------------- (1991 [2000]), Synchronizing individual time, family time, and historical time, en Families, History, and Social Change. Life-Course and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, University of Delaware, Westview Press. --------------- (1994 [2000]), Aging and generational relations. A historical and life-course perspective, in Families, History, and Social Change. Lif e-Course and CrossCultural Perspectives , University of Delaware, Westview Press. Joutard, P. (1986), Esas voces que nos llegan del pasado, Fondo de Cultura Econmica, Coleccin Popular, 345, Mxico. Maynard, M. (1994), Methods, practice and epistemology: the debate about feminism and research, in Maynard, M. y Purvis, J. (eds.), Researching Womens Lives from a Feminist Perspective , Taylor & Francis, London. Pacheco, E. y M. Blanco (2002), En busca de la metodologa mixta entre un estudio de corte cualitativo y el seguimiento de una cohorte en una encuesta retrospectiva,

19 Revista del Centro de Estudios Demogrficos y de Desarrollo Urbano (CEDDU) de El Colegio de Mxico, No. 51, Vol. 17, nm. 3, septiembre-diciembre, Mxico. Pacheco, E. y Blanco, M. (1998), Tres ejes de anlisis en la incorporacin de la perspectiva de gnero en los estudios sociodemogrficos sobre trabajo urbano en Mxico, Revista Papeles de Poblacin , Nueva Epoca, Ao 4, No. 15, Centro de Investigacin y Estudios Avanzados de la Poblacin, Universidad Autnoma del Estado de Mxico. Reinharz, S. (1992), Feminist Methods in Social Research, Oxford University Press. Shanahan, M. y G. Elder (2002), History, agency, and the life course, Agency, Motivation, and the Life Course , Vol. 48 of the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Crockett, ed., University of Nebraska Press.
1

My native language is not English, nevertheless I decided to translate my own paper so I --and even

thought it would be necessary, from the beginning, to warn the readers apologize-- for the odd English and mistakes they may find along the text.
2

Hareven explains that here she is thinking of timing as the meaning coincidence,

sequencing, coordination, and synchronization of various time clocks, those being individual, collective, and social structural (Hareven, 1991 [2000] : 152).
3

Elder explains these principles in several publications; the sequence I present here is not

exactly the one the authors propose in Elder, Kirkpatrick and Crosnoe, 2003, but the content is the same.
4

In sociodemography the term cohort makes reference to a group of persons that share

simultaneously a demographic experience; the most well known cohort takes as its definitory element chronological age, that is, a group of persons that share the origin event of being born on the same calendar year. The term cohort is also used to make reference to

20

other groups that experiment or enter the same event at the same time, for example, the literature reports school, labor or migrants cohorts.
5

With a colleague from El Colegio de Mxico, we have made some exercises to put in

practice, in empirical research, this type of combination (Blanco, M. y E. Pacheco, 2003; Pacheco, E. y M. Blanco, 2002; Blanco, M. y E. Pacheco, 2001).
6

In English the word perspective has as synonymous angle, outlook, point of view,

standpoint, view, viewpoint, that point directly to this discussion (Oxford Dictionary, 1997: 462).
7

This systematization does not seek, in any way, to establish a linear sequence, or

successive stages that are mutually exclusive, it just has an exposition aim.