Girlhood and Later Life: Girls Growing Up in Britain 1954-1976 and the Implications for Later-Life Experience and Identity, 1939-2020.

Tinkler, Penny and McMunn, Anne and Fenton, Laura and Cruz, Resto and Xue, Baowen (2024). Girlhood and Later Life: Girls Growing Up in Britain 1954-1976 and the Implications for Later-Life Experience and Identity, 1939-2020. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-855007

This study addressed women born 1939-52 who became young adults in Britain 1954-76 because this generation of women has immense historical and current significance. In their youth, these women were in the vanguard of postwar social change. In later life they are part of the largest group of over 60s in British history with unprecedented influence and are widely seen to be ageing differently from their predecessors partly due to their youth experiences.

This study investigated the key youth events and transitions to adulthood 1954-76 of girls born 1939-52, and the implications for their later-life experience and identity. It looked initially at the period 1954-76 when these girls were 15-24 years. It included working- and middle-class girls from rural and urban areas and compared 2 cohorts - war babies born 1939-45 and baby boomers born 1946-52. The exploration of youth experiences paid close attention to spatial mobilities because of their likely significance for understanding social diversity and inequalities in youth and longer term. Topics covered included: travel for work, study and leisure; leaving home; residential mobility; independent travel.

The research employed 4 quantitative and qualitative methods. 1) Documentary research to provide contemporary evidence of youth and to contextualise and inform methods 2 and 4. 2) Secondary analysis of longitudinal surveys to identify the occurrence and timing of youth events and transitions 1954-76 and to explore relationships between youth and later-life experiences. The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) is the backbone of this part. It was launched in 2002 to generate data about the lifecourses and ageing of people born pre-1954 in England; it includes retrospectively-collected data about youth 1954-76 and prospectively-collected data on later life. The study also utilised the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD)which has followed through to the present a sample of children born in Britain in 1946; this includes girls from Wales, Scotland and England and enabled comparisons between prospectively and retrospectively collected data on youth. 3) Qualitative study of the records of a sample of 70 ELSA and 30 NSHD participants to holistically assess youth experiences and lifecourse trajectories. 4) Two interviews using 3 elicitation methods with each of the 70 ELSA participants to probe: relationships in the survey data; the personal meaning and import of youth events, transitions and related spatial mobilities; links between youth experiences and later-life experience and identity. The interviews are archived.

Data description (abstract)

This is a qualitative data collection comprised of interviews with 70 women generated as part of an ESRC funded study 'Transitions and Mobilities: Girls growing up in Britain 1954-76 and the implications for later-life experience and identity' (ES/P00122X/1), otherwise known as the ‘Girlhood and Later Life Project’. This study addressed women born 1939-52 who became young adults in Britain 1954-76. The youth of this generation has immense historical and current significance. These women grew up in a period of far-reaching post-war social change. In later life they are part of the largest group of over 60s in British history with unprecedented influence and are widely seen to be ageing differently from their predecessors partly due to their youth experiences. The study had 2 aims. First, to investigate key experiences and transitions to adulthood of young women from different social backgrounds in Britain 1954-76, addressing related spatial mobilities. Youth was defined as 15 to 24 years, bridging the end of compulsory full-time education and the age by which most young women married. Two cohorts were identified: war babies born 1939-45 and baby boomers born 1946-52. Second, to explore the relationship between the youth of these women and their current, later-life experiences and identities.

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