Paid and unpaid work in the Norwegian Welfare state - the case of the lone mother allowance

In much of the literature, the Nordic states are presented as models for womanfriendly and gender equality policy. Differences between the gendered dimensions among the Nordic countries are less frequently explored. From a historical perspective, Norway was a latecomer in supporting women working outside the home, yet the Norwegian welfare state pioneered support for motherhood and lone mothers. Norway is one of the few countries in the world with a specific allowance for lone mothers. Today, the need for special welfare benefits for lone mothers is in question. This article follows the rise and reduction of the Norwegian allowance for lone mothers throughout the 20th century and into the early 21st century. While a core reason for developing welfare benefits for lone mothers at the start of the 1900s was to support women in their traditional, unpaid motherhood roles, this article shows how today’s dualearner and dual-career model and workforce policies exclude lone motherhood as a social category in need of particular support

Evaluation of changes in the system for transition allowance for single parents in Norway, 2001

The survey "Evaluation of changes in the system for transition allowance for single parents in Norway, 2001" came as a result of a change in the regulations for receiving transitional benefits for single parents as of 01.01.1998. The requirements for receiving benefits were tightened, and civil service had the opportunity to set conditions for allocation, which limited the scope of the assignment. The purpose of this study was to determine how the change affected those who received such support. The survey was conducted under the leadership of Liv Johanne Syltevik, associate professor in the sociology department at the University of Bergen, commissioned by The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. The survey was conducted by two questionnaire that was sent out with one and a half year intervals to 1600 beneficiaries based on a sample from the Social Security Administration. Of these, 645 people answered on the first form, and these were therefore sent a form number two to chart the development

Implementering av Nav-reformen ved to lokale Nav-kontorer sett fra ansattes perspektiv

Implementation of the labour and welfare reform (Nav) at two local offices seen from the staff’s perspective In this paper the implementation of the labour and welfare reform (Nav) in Norway is studied from the perspective of the staff at two local Nav offices. The study is based on qualitative interviews with employees at two medium sized local offices who come from the three previous departments (Labour directorate, The National Insurance Service and Social Assistance offices). The study shows that there are many common experiences at the two offices; the training is experienced as imperfect and the division of labour follows the previous departmental structures. However, since the processes have been handled somewhat differently there is a different feeling of togetherness and community at the two offices. In addition to the preciously organizational cultures that still seems to alive at both offices, there also seems to have arisen new and perhaps in the future more important dividing lines. One of them is the emerging dividing line between those who are employed by the state and the municipalities. This has to do with rights and social goods, but also important processes as regarding how users should be engaged and treated. Another dividing line is between those who meet the clients when they visit the local offices and those who shall supervise and handle their problems afterwards. With regard to the offices external environment there seem to have arisen a new and important conflict line between the local offices and the newly established central administrative agencies, something that has to do both with competition about qualified staff and questions about division of labour. The paper was originally conceived as an article, but for various reasons it was left too long in the «tray». When we brought it up again, we discovered that it in our opinion were still relevant and interesting not least with regard to understand the Nav‐reform, but at the same time we also saw that to develop the paper into a scientific article would require that we undertook new interviews at the offices, which was not possible for us to do. The paper is accordingly not current with new literature in the field after it was originally written (June 2009). The memorandum is written as a part of NFR project «Evaluation of the Nav‐reform» led by Rokkan Centre.publishedVersio