About the project
Text
Research
The transition to parenthood is a critical juncture for the reproduction of inequalities in the home and in the labour market. Research convincingly shows that heterosexual couples become more traditional after becoming parents, with women spending more time in care and housework. However, little is known about how this transition affects the division of labour and care in same-sex couples. The GENPARENT project critically assesses theories on the transition to parenthood by comparing the division of work and care and its career related consequences in heterosexual and same-sex couples. Based on large-scale quantitative data analyses as well as in-depth interviews, the project shed light on couples’ reasons and motives for their division of work and care. The project addresses these issues from an internationally comparative gender regime perspective by following couples’ transitions to parenthood in four Nordic countries, the Netherlands and the US.
Sub-projects
The GENPARENT project builds on three sub-projects that are closely linked: North, Regime and Voice. Each sub-project contributes an important piece of the puzzle to the full picture of the transition to parenthood and its work related consequences in the variety of families that constitute modern societies.
Publications
The GENPARENT research project has produced a number of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
To the list of GENPARENT publications
The GENPARENT team
The GENPARENT team is composed of an international group of researchers with backgrounds in sociology, economics and gender research. Additional collaborations strengthens the interdisciplinary, multi-method approach applied to answer the research questions (please see Publications).
The GENPARENT team: Maaike van der Vleuten, Ylva Moberg, Marie Evertsson, Eva Jaspers, Madeleine Eriksson and Weverthon Machado. (Missing: Allison Geerts)
Members of the team
Marie Evertsson
Marie Evertsson is Principal Investigator of the GENPARENT project. She is Professor of Sociology in Social Policy at SOFI, Stockholm University, and a fellow of the European Academy of Sociology. Evertsson’s research focus on the (gendered) division of paid work and care and the degree to which family policies influence individuals’ labor market prospects and income trajectories during the transition to parenthood. Evertsson is Associate Editor of the European Sociological Review.
Eva Jaspers
Eva Jaspers is Associate Professor of Sociology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands and a member of the Interuniversity Centre for Social Science Research and Methodology (ICS). Her research interests are inequalities based on gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality; diversity in social networks; and same-sex families. She has published in journals like European Sociological Review, Sex Roles, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Social Networks.
Ylva Moberg
Ylva Moberg is a researcher at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, and a member of the GENPARENT team. Ylva got her Ph.D. in Economics at Uppsala University in 2017, and has since continued working on the division of labor and consequences of parenthood, comparing same-sex and different-sex couples, and adoptive and biological parents. She also studies the impact of going through gender transition, using Swedish register data.
Maaike van der Vleuten
Maaike van der Vleuten is a researcher in the GENPARENT project, working at Stockholm University. Her research interests include gender inequality; educational trajectories; same-sex couples; and work and family behaviour. She has received grants regarding these topics from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the Dutch national science foundation NWO, including a Talent Scheme VENI grant.
Weverthon Machado
Weverthon Machado is a postdoc in the GENPARENT project, working at Utrecht University. His research interests lie mainly in the areas of social stratification and family dynamics and include union formation, marriage markets, the gendered division of labor and, more generally, the several forms of inequality between and within families. He holds a PhD from the Rio de Janeiro State University and before joining GENPARENT was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute.
Allison Geerts
Allison Geerts is a sociologist and demographer with a M.Sc in Sociology and Social research from Utrecht University. She participated in the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD). Within the GENPARENT project, she is responsible for the qualitative interviews in the Netherlands. Her PhD project will be a mixed methods investigation of the division of labour in same-sex couples in the Netherlands, using register data and in-depth interviews. Her supervisors are Marie Evertsson and Eva Jaspers.
Madeleine Eriksson
Madeleine Eriksson holds a Master's degree in Gender studies from Uppsala University. Within the GENPARENT project, Eriksson is responsible for the qualitative data collection in Sweden. The data is collected through in-depth interviews with lesbian couples who are expecting and having their first child. In her PhD project she will analyze the data with a particular focus on the couples' reasoning and realization of the division of paid work, housework and care related tasks. Her supervisors are Marie Evertsson and Fanny Ambjörnsson (Gender studies).
Previous activities
Some of our previous activities, such as workshops and presentations are listed here. To find upcomining events, have a look in our Calender.
Workshops
Workshop at Social Impact factory, Utrecht
2022-07-05
Annual meeting of the GENPARENT team. We discussed drafts of interview guidelines, discussed ongoing research and plans for future projects
Workshop at Stora Brännbo, Sigtuna
2021-11-25/26
Annual meeting of the GENPARENT Team. We presented papers, discussed ongoing research and plans for future projects.
Participants: Madeleine Eriksson, Marie Evertsson, Allison Geerts (online), Ylva Moberg and Maaike van der Vleuten, Stockholm University. Eva Jaspers and Weverthon Machado, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Online Workshop 2020
2020-11-24/25
Photo: Iuliia Sutiagina / Mostphotos
In the year of the Covid pandemic, the GENPARENT team held an online workshop on November 24-25, focusing on the work of the junior team members. We also discussed future research plans and ideas. Participants: Madeleine Eriksson, Marie Evertsson, Allison Geerts, Eva Jaspers, Ylva Moberg and Maaike van der Vleuten. External participant: Anna Lund, Stockholm University.
Workshop at Näsby Slott
2019-09-26/27
The aim of the workshop was to gather the researchers involved by the GENPARENT project. We presented and discussed ongoing research as well as plans for future projects.
Participants: Ylva Moberg, Eva Jaspers, Maaike van der Vleuten, Silke Aisenbrey, Allison Geerts, Marie Evertsson and Madeleine Eriksson.
Presentations
The researchers in the GENPARENT project have presented our work at conferences, workshops and seminars.
- Moberg: “Splitting the penalty by taking turns? Earnings losses after first and second birth in same-sex and different-sex couples”, Conference of the European Society on Family Relations in Roskilde, Denmark.
- Van der Vleuten: “Cash-for-Care and the Costs of Parenthood. Evidence from Adoptive parents and Female Same-sex Couples in Finland” (with Moberg), the LGBTQI* Seminar (online), coordinated by D. Boertien (CED Barcelona) and M. Fischer (Goethe University Frankfurt).
May 2023
- Evertsson: “An equal transition to parenthood? Social transfers and earnings development among couples transitioning to parenthood in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden” (co-authored with Moberg and van der Vleuten), the Hertie School, Berlin, Germany.
- Geerts: “Building the family you want. Lesbian contraceptive practices inside/outside the fertility clinic”, Dag van de sociologie, Ghent University, the Netherlands.
- Machado: “Social class inequalities between different-sex and same-sex couples in the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands, the LGBTQI* Seminar (online), coordinated by D. Boertien (CED Barcelona) and M. Fischer (Goethe University Frankfurt).
- Moberg: “The earnings penalty in female same-sex and different-sex couples transitioning to parenthood in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden” (co-authored with Evertsson & van der Vleuten). Jönköping International Business School, Sweden.
- Van der Vleuten: “Cash-for-Care and the costs of Parenthood. Evidence from Adoptive parents and Female Same-sex Couples in Finland“ (co-authored with Moberg), for the Flux Consortium (Family Formation in Flux – Causes, Consequences and Possible Futures) (online), University of Turku, Finland.
March 2023
- Moberg: “Splitting the penalty by taking turns? Earnings losses after first and second birth in same-sex and different-sex couples.” (co-authored with van der Vleuten), the LGBTQI* Seminar (online), coordinated by D. Boertien (CED Barcelona) and M. Fischer (Goethe University Frankfurt).
January 2023
- Moberg: “Splitting the penalty by taking turns? Earnings losses after first and second birth in same-sex and different-sex couples.“ (co-authored with van der Vleuten) at QPaP - Queer Populations, Perspectives and Polices (online).
Funding
This project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. ERC Consolidator Grant (No 771770) to principal investigator Marie Evertsson. It builds on a collaboration between the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) and Utrecht University, the Netherlands (UU), with Eva Jaspers (UU) as senior team member.
Last updated: 2025-10-10
Source: Enhetsnamn engelska