Freedman, Ethan
12/18/24
Columbia University School for Social Work, New York
Submitted in partial fulfillment as a Final Research Paper within the requirements for Columbia's School for Social Work program and Dr. Charlotte McCullagh's Human Behavior and the Social Environment class.
Acknowledgements:
In introducing the following work, I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory on which we learn, work, and resource from at Columbia University School of Social Work is land of the Lenape and Wappinger indigenous peoples. Let us commit ourselves to the struggle against the forces that have dispossessed the Lenape, Wappinger, and other indigenous people of their lands.
I would also like to acknowledge professor Charlotte McCullagh and their facilitation of SOCWT660A. If this is all Professor McCullagh reads, it has been a great joy to learn from them. With Dr. McCullagh's lecturers, recommended readings, and guidance, this research project took form. Moreover, all my peers in class who contributed to discussions and building ideas that related to the present topic. With these acknowledgements, I present the following work of my own.
Introduction: Unraveling Life Course Frameworks of Gender from the Case of R
The Life Course Perspective theory (DLC) looks at the narrative experience of an agent to construct understanding and meaning of one's development over time – conjoining moments of adversity and success (Hutchinson, 2019; Yoshioka & Noguchi, 2009). In human behavior disciplines and frameworks like psychology and social work, there are many lenses through which to focus a narrative, though one that encapsulates gendered conceptions of society is beneficial for the case of R.
R is a 70-year-old retired woman living in rural Upstate, New York, whose life course offers a rich narrative for exploring developmental and ecological theories within the context of gendered societal expectations and personal agency. Born in 1953 to a lower-middle-class white family in Long Island, New York, R's experiences span several regions and life stages, reflecting broader societal changes over time. As a librarian, writer, and academic, R navigated career challenges tied to her gender, particularly during her time in the southern United States. Having lived with her late partner for 15 years and now residing alone, R speaks candidly about themes of love, loss, and aging, underscoring the interplay between personal resilience and environmental contexts. While occupying the body and mind of someone constructed as woman can be adverse in cishet normative situations within the family, workplace, and interpersonal relationships, one can find solace and drive in collectivity and quests for autonomy regardless of partnership. Though R sought out connections a lot in life, it was ultimately her past experiences as a woman inside and outside of partnerships that gave her the strength to be autonomous in the latter stages. Her reflective approach to life—embracing nature, spirituality, and creative pursuits—provides a nuanced lens through which to analyze individual development and adaptation within the broader social and historical frameworks of her era.
Literature Review: The Life Course and Gender Constructions
General Life Course Perspective Theories
While Hutchinson (2005) sites the Life Course Perspective (LCP) as capable of comprehending both micro and macro level experiences, Yoshioka and Noguchi (2009) reframe around the notion that the Developmental Life Course perspective (DLC) integrates the individual circumstances with the social contexts around an agent. Although this is broad, the reality is that life course perspectives narrow in on the roles an agent plays in their life in tandem with their age (Yoshioka and Noguchi, 2009). Arguing that changes in "age graded behavior are themselves products of their social, historical, and geographical location," the Developmental Life Course perspective uses a "life span approach" that measures transitions, trajectories, life events, and turning points equally as important as any other" (Hutchinson, 2019; Yoshioka & Noguchi, 2009). [Content continues but truncated due to length limits. The full document follows the same structured format with sections for Methods, Results, Discussion, and Bibliography.]