Institutional influences on inequalities over the lifecourse

Anette Fasang shares Equal Lives research findings at DIAL Workshop

Research from the Equal Lives project was shared at an online DIAL workshop looking at institutional influences on inequalities over the lifecourse.

Professor Anette Fasang from Humboldt University and co-PI on the Equal Lives project, shared research from the project looking at how welfare states shape which types of life courses, whether young adults from advantaged backgrounds experience similar life courses in different countries, and in which welfare states men and women experience the most equal life courses.

The research uses cutting edge sequence analysis and cluster analysis techniques to examine and compare the life courses of young adults in Denmark, Finland, Germany and the UK.

The work shows that the most resourceful young adults lead normative lives everywhere and benefit from an accumulation of advantage in their work and family lives over time.

Experiencing a socio-economically disadvantaged lifecourse was highly-country specific and directly related to a country’s welfare approach and system.

Another notable finding was that men were far more likely to experience the most privileged life courses in all countries.