The chapters in this book have each contributed to a wider understanding of the transitions to and the experiences of parenthood across different European countries. The analysis of biographical cases was carried out taking account of a multilayered set of conditions: the nation state both over time and in the present; national institutions such as the system of education and welfare state provisions; gendered aspects of the labour market; and gendered expectations and practices across countries. In this final chapter we look at four key issues that are central to understanding the phenomenon of working parenthood that has been the focus of the book: the issue of time, including life course time and everyday time and, relatedly, the importance of context; the salience of class and gender; and finally we end with reflections about some implications for issues arising in the present and the future.

Life course and time

Different approaches to and perspectives on time is one of the overarching theoretical frameworks of this book. In much of what is current in sociological research, notions of modernity (late modernity, postmodernity and so forth) are employed to situate the present and to articulate historical change. The concept is applied to unspecified long-term trends and is commonly used in studies of family life and biographical research. In Chapter Two we outlined why we consider concepts of modernity and postmodernity too wide-ranging to be helpful for understanding a particular cohort's transitions to parenthood, as these take place in different national contexts. Instead we suggested that a life course perspective provides a better alternative. In this latter approach historical changes and continuities are foregrounded. Historical period does not refer to a loosely defined era but to particular periods of historical time. While, for example, late modernity sometimes refers to loosely defined places, for example, ‘the Western world’in general, historical periods are discussed with reference to particular countries or regions. Hence a focus on a particular period offers the opportunity to contextualise biographical material and to discuss the transition to parenthood with reference to a multilayered spatial and diachronic framework that also encompasses specific (micro, meso and macro/national) contexts. This approach therefore captures the complexities of the agency–structure dynamic.