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Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Introduction -- 1 Cohorts, Inequality, and Social Change -- Inequality and Aging: Stratification over the Life Course -- Theories of Intracohort Heterogeneity and Inequality -- Economic Inequality Across Countries and Between Age-Groups -- Aging Cohorts and Economic Inequality -- Employment Institutions and Inequality in Old Age -- State Policies, Inequality, and Aging -- Conclusion -- 2 Pathways to Inequality: Intracohort Differentiation over the Life Course -- Aging and Social Theory: Linkages Between Work and Retirement -- Research on Linkages Across the Life Course -- An Overview of Income Sources -- Cohort Trends in Women's Lives and Intracohort Differentiation -- Implications for Intracohort Variation in the Life Course -- Poverty -- Conclusion -- 3 Asynchronous Lives: The Normal Life Course and Its Variations -- The Age Integration of Lives -- The Resilience of Gender Structure -- Family Pathways: The Breadwinner and Role-Sharing Models -- Asynchronous Lives -- Studies of Asynchronous Lives and Inequality -- Family-Work Pathways to Retirement -- Conclusion -- 4 Pathways to Retirement: The Timing of Retirement -- Earlier and More Universal Exit -- Institutional Structure and Segmentation of Work Exit -- Alternate Institutional Pathways Producing Early Exit -- The Intersection of Social Structure and Individual Trajectories -- Conclusion -- 5 Labor Markets and Occupational Welfare in the United States -- From Wage Inequality to Pension Inequality -- Employee Benefits as Decentralized Occupational Welfare -- Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pension Plans -- The Private-Public Linkages in Occupational Welfare -- Conclusion -- 6 U.S. Labor Force Participation Trends in Comparative Perspective -- Changing Patterns of Late-Life Labor Force Participation.

This paper considers the changing social institution of employersponsored pensions within the framework of the sociology of risk. Employer-sponsored pensions are elements of a variable and changing occupational welfare system in which the risk and responsibilities for retirement income security have shifted from employer to worker through the expanding role of third-party vendors (insurers). Risk processes can be identified at the employer, insurer, family, and individual levels. This system can be conceptualized as a hierarchy of risk that begins at the organizational level with employer sponsorship of alternative pension plans and extends to the allocation of workers across pension jobs, to worker decisions regarding pension participation and investment of funds, and to final pension balances. Embedded in this multi-level risk system are gender differences that further stratify the aging workforce. We discuss the implications of these changes for future research on life course and retirement and recommend that risk preferences be examined within the contexts of the workplace and the household.

Life cycle is among the most widely used concepts in the social sciences. It may be invoked merely to denote temporality. It may be applied metaphorically or heuristically to initiate an analysis. Or it may comprise the core assumptions of a research program in developmental processes. Strictly defined, life cycle refers to maturational and generational processes in natural populations. Alternative conceptions of life cycle, like life span and life course, do not share the same intrinsic reference to generation or reproduction that transcends the single lifetime of the individual. Still these concepts are often used interchangeably. The history, meanings, and uses of these concepts across anthropology, psychology, economics, and sociology are reviewed. Three areas of modern sociology—individual aging, family life cycle, and organizational life cycle—are examined specifically in their treatment of life-cycle concepts. Finally, the implications of alternative usages for the study of populations as opposed to individuals and for the study of stability as opposed to change are considered.

The shapes of women's lives have changed over the twentieth century as a result of declining fertility, extended longevity, new life-styles in marriage and family formation, and increased attachment to the labor force. Midlife role transitions for women are diverse and dependent upon earlier life events related to marriage, child bearing, and work. Trends such as the postponement of marriage and child bearing, divorce and separation, and early career entry have changed the traditional family life cycle. Low fertility among women with patterns of early childbirth has led to an extended empty nest period and to increased labor participation at midlife. All these trends point to the continuities and discontinuities in individual women's lives and in the experiences of different age cohorts of women over time. The future prospects for today's middle-aged women are viewed in terms of both their predictable and variable features.

Women's lives have changed during the twentieth century as a result of declining fertility, extended longevity, new life-styles in marriage & family formation, & increased attachment to the LF. Midlife role transitions are diverse & dependent on earlier life events related to marriage, child bearing, & work. Trends (eg, postponement of marriage & child bearing, divorce & separation, & early career entry) have changed the traditional family life cycle. Low fertility among women with patterns of early childbirth has led to an extended empty nest period & to increased LF participation at midlife. All these trends point to the continuities & discontinuities in individual women's lives & in the experiences of different aged cohorts of women over time. The future prospects for today's middle-aged women are viewed in terms of both their predictable & variable features. HA.