Rush hour of life

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A father with his children on the way to work. Before that, the intermediate stations crèche and kindergarten have to be completed in the morning rush hour

The term rush hour of life (derived from rush hour , rush hour of life ) in family politics and sociology describes a phase of life from the completion of vocational training to mid-life, including the phase of starting a family. The term expresses that through later career entry (including through increased higher and thus longer training) on ​​the one hand and largely defined end of the time for starting a family on the other hand, both, i.e. career entry and advancement and family formation, more and more often at the same time and in a shorter period of time are to be mastered. In particular, the phase of life in which small children have to be looked after in the household is therefore also included . The compatibility of family and work therefore appears to be of particular importance in this phase of life. The exact time span of the rush hour of life is not given uniformly: mostly people speak of an age from mid 20 to late 30; however, the term is also used for a longer or shorter period of time.

The use of the term emphasizes the time compression with regard to the life events of young adults. In addition, the requirement of coordinating the professional activity of two partners is mentioned as characteristic of this phase of life.

The term became more popular in Germany with the publication of the German Government's Seventh Family Report , which refers to the use of the term by Michael Bittman and James Mahmud Rice (2000). In this phase, numerous life tasks collide within a few years; so "professional consolidation, relationship intensity, bringing up children and caring for old parents would repeatedly come up against each other as problematic". The temporal compression within a certain age phase is ascribed a significant influence on demographic development in Germany .

Causes, connections and political alternatives for action

In Germany, the time pressure in the "rush hour of life" between 27 and 35 years is particularly great. There is a similar rush hour in all highly developed industrial nations in connection with investments in the training of young adults, but in Germany, according to the Seventh Family Report, it is “probably particularly pronounced because the German training system, especially in the academic professions, is different than the systems in other countries, so far does not have any grading, but basically defines the highest level of training that has been achieved to access the occupational system ”. Academics in particular would only have a few years to make important life decisions. This shortage of time is also due to the fact that there are hardly any opportunities to combine starting a family and studying . In addition, young adults are economically dependent on their parents, which for a long time does not give young adults a chance to decide about their own future.

In the northern European and Anglo-Saxon countries in particular, training qualifications could be acquired for different lifetimes, so that adults could flexibly plan their own life plans at a comparatively early stage. A “sustainable family policy” in the sense of the author of the Seventh Family Report, Hans Bertram, requires, in particular, educational policy measures to rectify the rush hour of life .

The Seventh Family Report also relates the rush hour of life to changes in employment patterns:

“This compression of time in the life course is essentially due to the structural features of occupations and career requirements that are still valid, which are inscribed in the institutions of education, training and the labor market along the Fordist pattern of the“ normal ”male, free and continuous working life. These patterns are associated with compulsory presence in the company, willingness to work (excessively) long hours and mobility [...]. While men were able to meet these structural requirements of the labor market relatively easily as long as care work was taken over by women as part of the traditional division of labor, the increasing employment of women not only results in time bottlenecks in everyday life, but also problems in coordinating employment processes at couple level. These are linked - against the background of the system of income taxation and social security, which is based on the main breadwinner model - with disadvantages of women in the distribution of income up to and including their pension payments. "

In a publication by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs on the Seventh Family Report, it says on the demographic situation:

“The real problem in Germany, however, is not the high level of childlessness, but the low rate of large families that could compensate for childlessness. The main reason lies in the specifically German planning of the résumé. Its strict three-way division into training, occupation and pension therefore leads to a "rush hour of life": Everything has to be done at once in a short time, find a partner, start a career, have children, build a house. "

The Seventh Family Report states that “certain phases of life should not lead to complete overload and excessive demands and other phases of life without social participation should be organized as pure leisure time outside of society”. For men and women, the résumé needs to be rectified, and age-integrated models of the résumé should be developed for this purpose. Such a reorientation must take into account, according to the education economist Katharina Spieß , “that family members want to interrupt, reduce or resume employment at different points in time”.

Health insurance companies point out the increase in mental illnesses during the rush hour of life , up to and including burnout . People between the ages of thirty and fifty are particularly at risk.

In order to adapt to social change, changes to the social security system are required, since employment careers are becoming more diverse, but social security is still based on coverage in the event of loss of income in the context of a normal employment relationship .

See also

literature

Web links

  • Martin Bujard, Ralina Panova for bpb.de: Rush hour of life . 15th December 2014

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ H. Lothaller: The 'rush hour' of life and the importance of family work and its division . In: Journal for Intergenerational Justice . Topic: Young generation under pressure? , No. 3 , 2008, ISSN  1617-1799 , p. 4th ff . ( generationenrechte.de [PDF; 3.0 MB ]).
  2. ↑ Ute Klammer: Uncertainties and stresses in the early phases of life as a challenge for the design of a life-course-oriented, sustainable social policy . In: Journal for Intergenerational Justice . Topic: Young generation under pressure? , No. 3 , 2008, ISSN  1617-1799 , p. 9 ( generationenrechte.de [PDF; 3.0 MB ]).
  3. ↑ ICTs in the rush hour of life = Les NTIC à l'heure de pointe de la vie. (Abstract). Retrieved April 3, 2009 (English, French).
  4. ↑ Michael Bittman, James Mahmud Rice: The rush hour: the character of leisure time and gender equity. In: Social Forces. 79 (1), pp. 165–89, 2000. Quoted from: Seventh Family Report . P. 34.
  5. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 244.
  6. ↑ Symposium: Making the rush hour of life more flexible - diversity of life courses in international comparison. Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, 2008, accessed April 3, 2009 .
  7. ↑ Topic: Young generation under pressure? In: Journal for Intergenerational Justice . No. 3 , 2008, ISSN  1617-1799 ( generationenrechte.de [PDF; 3.0 MB ]).
  8. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 33.
  9. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 34.
  10. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 249.
  11. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 34.
  12. ↑ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz: Small Lexicon of Politics. Verlag CH Beck, 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-51062-5 , p. 139.
  13. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 243.
  14. ^ Seventh Family Report - II. Families in Europe. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 24, 2008 ; Retrieved March 29, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmfsfj.de
  15. ↑ Seventh Family Report . Introduction page XXX and p. 249.
  16. ↑ Seventh Family Report . P. 244.
  17. ^ Matilda White Riley, John W. Riley Jr., John W. Jr .: Individual and Societal Potential of Aging. In: Paul B. Baltes, Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Future of aging and social development. Berlin 1992, pp. 437-459. Quoted from: Seventh Family Report. P. 249.
  18. ↑ Katharina Spieß: A vision for tomorrow: Successful family in 2020. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Forum Demographic Change of the Federal President, December 6, 2006, archived from the original on September 28, 2011 ; Retrieved March 29, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.forum-demographie.de
  19. ↑ Rudi Schmidt: Burnout in the rush hour of life. Science Information Service, November 7, 2007, accessed on March 29, 2009 .
  20. ↑ Ute Klammer: Uncertainties and stresses in the early phases of life as a challenge for the design of a life-course-oriented, sustainable social policy . In: Journal for Intergenerational Justice . Topic: Young generation under pressure? , No. 3 , 2008, ISSN  1617-1799 , p. 12 ( generationenrechte.de [PDF; 3.0 MB ]).