Gendered Forms of Intergenerational Solidarity in the COVID-19-Pandemic – a Critical Perspective on a Moral Resource in Future Health Crises

The COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a blueprint for the potentials and pitfalls of intergenerational solidarity as a moral and political resource in health crises. It provoked controversial debates about the solidaristic responsibilities between generations. However, while many of these appeals to intergenerational solidarity involved at least implicit references to other social categories, such as age and gender, the consequences of such an entanglement of social categories have been rather neglected so far in ethical and social research.

Against this backdrop, we provide an intersectional perspective on intergenerational solidarity in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify lessons learned for future health crises. After a short clarification of the concepts of generation and solidarity, we provide a critical analysis of the public media debate in Germany. Applying qualitative content analysis of two major German newspapers (DIE ZEIT and Welt am Sonntag) during February 2020 and June 2022, we explore how intergenerational solidarity was framed in the media, especially at the intersection with the social categories of gender and age. On this basis, we carve out a matrix of gendered and queer forms of intergenerational solidarity and respective underlying narratives. Our findings reveal a gendered and heteronormative generational divide that include pertinent gender and age stereotypes during the pandemic: while older women were largely depicted within traditional caregiving roles, queer forms of intergenerational care were marginalized or omitted in media narratives, neglecting their potential as resource in this acute health crisis.

We discuss our findings within feminist theories on care, affection, and queer healthcare. Based on this, we draw conclusions how a more diversity-sensitive approach towards intergenerational solidarity can unfold its potential as a moral resource and for policy action in impending health crises, e.g. the post-antibiotic era and the nursing crisis, to develop sustainable healthcare in the future.