The Equality Hurdle: Resolving the Welfare State Paradox

This article revisits a central tenet of the welfare state paradox, also known as the inclusion-equality trade-off. Using large-scale survey data for 31 European countries and the United States collected over a recent 15-year period, the article re-investigates the relationship between female labour force participation and gender segregation. Emphasising the transitional role played by the monetisation of domestic tasks, the study identifies a ‘gender equality hurdle’ that countries with the highest levels of female labour force participation have already passed. The results show that occupational gender segregation is currently lower in countries with high female labour force participation, regardless of public sector size. However, the findings also indicate that high relative levels of public spending on health, education and care is particularly conducive to desegregation. Hence, rather than being paradoxical, more equality in participation begets more equality in the labour market, as well as in gendered tasks in society overall.The Equality Hurdle: Resolving the Welfare State ParadoxpublishedVersio

Gendered Labor Market (dis)advantages in Nordic Welfare States. Introduction to the Theme of the Special Issue

Gender equality has been named as one of the normative foundations of Nordic wel- fare states. This is reflected in how, year after year, Nordic states rank among the most gender egalitarian countries in the world (see, e.g., World Economic Forum 2020). In Nordic countries, the state has been, and continues to be, a central actor in shaping women’s citizenship, labor market opportunities, and caring roles. Especially publicly funded welfare services and policies that facilitate the reconciliation of work and care have played a major part in advancing women’s labor market participation (see, e.g., Bergquist et al. 1999; Borchorst & Siim 2002; Ellingsæter & Leira 2006; Siim & Stoltz 2015). The institutional framework of Nordic welfare state policies has been central to what has been called the ‘social democratic public service route’ (Walby 2004).One of the important building blocks of gender equality has been the aim of making policies in Nordic countries ‘women-friendly’. More than 30 years ago, Helga Hernes (1987) identified the Nordic countries as ‘potentially women-friendly societies’. She char- acterized women-friendly societies as those that ‘would not force harder choices on women than on men’ (ibid., 15), particularly in relation to work and care. Hernes also envisaged that woman-friendliness should be achieved without increasing other forms of inequality, such as class or ethnicity-based inequalities among different groups of women.However, achieving gender equality in working life and the sort of womenfriendliness that Hernes envisaged at the societal level has in many ways also proved to be challenging, as the ties between the state and gender equality goals are more complex than what they might seem at first glance. Gender disparities have proven persistent also within the Nordic context. When we issued a call for this special issue, we were inter- ested in various forms of gendered labor market (dis)advantage in Nordic countries. Furthermore, we asked how gender segregation, welfare state policies, labor market policies, and various labor market actors interact to produce, maintain, challenge, or change gender equality in the labor market in the Nordic countries and beyond. The five articles presented in this special issue address the issue of gendered labor market (dis)advantages in Nordic countries from several vantage points, focusing on both on ‘traditional’ questions, such as corporate power and sustainable employment, and ‘emerging’ questions such as intersectionality, gender culture, and aesthetic work

Advancing women’s representation in top academic positions–what works?

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The meaning of ethnic equality in Scandinavian anti-discrimination legislation :

Ethnicity is an academically contested concept and has multiple meanings in everyday communication. The present article analyses recent Swedish and Norwegian anti-discrimination law reform documents and asks how policymakers debate the meaning of ethnic equality, and the consequence of this debate for the incorporation of preferential treatment regulation in the law. The analysis suggests that ethnicity must be interpreted through a multifaceted lens of ‘othering’ in order to allow for ‘appropriate’ distinctions between relevant groups. This raises particularly challenging questions for proactive equality work, a central component of the anti-discrimination legislation in these countries.publishedVersio

Legal harmonization and intersectionality in swedish and norwegian anti-discrimination reform

This article investigates to what extent the challenging questions emerging from the intersectionality literature have been addressed in the process of reforming antidiscrimination legislation in Sweden and Norway. I find that even though intersectionality is presented as relevant for the policy reforms in both countries, the term largely remains abstract and obscure in the policy documents. As a result, other more practical circumstances become decisive in determining the outcome of the reforms. The existing structure of the national equality legislation in particular seems to have had significant consequences for the variation in outcomes of the two reform processes.acceptedVersio

Kjønnssegregering i utdanning og arbeidsliv : status og årsaker

Den horisontale kjønnssegregeringen i arbeidsmarkedet springer ut av en rekke sammensatte samfunnsprosesser. Prosessene utspiller seg på ulike nivåer, fra individuelle evner og valg, via familie og omgangskrets, barnehager, skoler og arbeidsplasser, til større samfunnsstrukturer, medierepresentasjoner og politiske og juridiske rammebetingelser. Gitt utdanningssystemets stadig voksende rolle som sorteringsinstans, ligger noe av utfordringen i gutters og jenters valg av utdanning. Hvorfor velger gutter og jenter såpass ulikt som de gjør? I hvor stor grad er gutters og jenters utdanningsvalg i endring? Særlig jenters utdanningsvalg har endret seg kraftig i løpet av de siste 50 årene. Dette indikerer at kvinners og menns preferanser og mulighetsrom er langt fra uforanderlige. Samtidig tyder den vedvarende kjønnsdelingen på at noen av arbeidsmarkedets kjønnede strukturer ikke så lett lar seg endre. Rapporten kartlegger status og endring i den horisontale segregeringen i utdanningssystemet og arbeidsmarkedet i Norge og diskuterer noen av de sentrale årsakene. Med utgangspunkt i rapportens konklusjoner foreslås ideer til tiltak for å motvirke kjønnssegregering, samt områder der det er behov for videre forskning

Stabilitet og endring i det kjønnsdelte arbeidsmarkedet

Kvinner og menn jobber i stor grad i ulike yrker, sektorer og bransjer i det norske arbeidsmarkedet. Kjønnsdelingen på arbeidsmarkedet har konsekvenser for kjønnsgapet i lønn, kjønnsgapet i arbeidstid, og bidrar til skjevheter i karrieremuligheter mellom menn og kvinner. I noen bransjer, for eksempel i helse og omsorg, og i teknologi og IT der arbeidskraftbehovet vokser, kan det være vanskelig å få nok kvalifisert arbeidskraft hvis kjønnsdelingen opprettholdes. I en tid hvor kvinner gjør det bedre på skolen, og tar høyere utdanning i større grad enn menn, så stilles det også spørsmål ved om ikke bedriftene går glipp av talent hvis de ikke klarer å rekruttere flere av disse dyktige kvinnene inn i lederposisjoner. Forskningsprosjektet Gender Segregation in the Labor Market: Comparative Perspectives and Welfare State Challenges har hatt som mål å undersøke menns og kvinners ulike plassering i arbeidsmarkedet. Vi har studert mekanismene som bidrar til ulike utdanningsvalg blant gutter og jenter, og hva som skjer i overgangen fra utdanning til arbeid. Det er også prosesser innenfor arbeidsmarkedet som bidrar til at forskjellene mellom menn og kvinner endrer seg med hensyn til karriereutvikling og lønn, etter at første yrkesvalg er tatt. Vi har undersøkt hvordan ulike typer velferdsstater påvirker disse prosessene ved å sammenlikne Norge med andre land, og hva som bidrar til endring og stabilitet i mønstrene over tid. Denne brosjyren oppsummerer noen av innsiktene fra prosjektet.Stabilitet og endring i det kjønnsdelte arbeidsmarkedetpublishedVersio

Stabilitet og endring i det kjønnsdelte arbeidsmarkedet

Kvinner og menn jobber i stor grad i ulike yrker, sektorer og bransjer i det norske arbeidsmarkedet. Kjønnsdelingen på arbeidsmarkedet har konsekvenser for kjønnsgapet i lønn, kjønnsgapet i arbeidstid, og bidrar til skjevheter i karrieremuligheter mellom menn og kvinner. I noen bransjer, for eksempel i helse og omsorg, og i teknologi og IT der arbeidskraftbehovet vokser, kan det være vanskelig å få nok kvalifisert arbeidskraft hvis kjønnsdelingen opprettholdes. I en tid hvor kvinner gjør det bedre på skolen, og tar høyere utdanning i større grad enn menn, så stilles det også spørsmål ved om ikke bedriftene går glipp av talent hvis de ikke klarer å rekruttere flere av disse dyktige kvinnene inn i lederposisjoner. Forskningsprosjektet Gender Segregation in the Labor Market: Comparative Perspectives and Welfare State Challenges har hatt som mål å undersøke menns og kvinners ulike plassering i arbeidsmarkedet. Vi har studert mekanismene som bidrar til ulike utdanningsvalg blant gutter og jenter, og hva som skjer i overgangen fra utdanning til arbeid. Det er også prosesser innenfor arbeidsmarkedet som bidrar til at forskjellene mellom menn og kvinner endrer seg med hensyn til karriereutvikling og lønn, etter at første yrkesvalg er tatt. Vi har undersøkt hvordan ulike typer velferdsstater påvirker disse prosessene ved å sammenlikne Norge med andre land, og hva som bidrar til endring og stabilitet i mønstrene over tid. Denne brosjyren oppsummerer noen av innsiktene fra prosjektet

The impact of having a child with special needs: Labour market adaptations of immigrant and majority mothers

This article compares how having a child with special needs shapes the labour market adaptations of immigrant and majority mothers. We use longitudinal data from Norwegian public registers including all women who gave birth between 2001 and 2005 (N¼104,988), and follow the mothers from two years before birth to four years after birth. We find generally large differences in employment and income among immigrant and majority mothers. Majority mothers typically adapt to the intensified care responsibilities associated with having a child with special needs by working somewhat less, but most importantly by combining work with high levels of long-term sickness absence. By contrast, immigrant mothers substantially reduce their work intensity (as measured through labour earnings) after childbirth regardless of whether their child has special needs. Among immigrant mothers whose child has special needs, we do not find elevated sickness absence levels comparable to that of majority mothers. Given the already reduced work intensity among immigrant mothers in the years following the birth of their child, we do not find additional labour market consequences of intensified care responsibilities within this group of mothers.publishedVersio

Socioeconomic background and high school completion: Mediation by health and moderation by national context

This study uses longitudinal data from the Norwegian Health Study linked with registry data (n = 13262) and the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (n = 3604) to examine (1) whether adolescent health mediates the well-established relationship between socioeconomic background and successful high school completion, and (2) whether this mediated pathway of influence varies by national context. Adolescents from lower educated and lower income families reported poorer health, which negatively impacted their likelihood of graduating from high school. The partial mediational effect of adolescent health was stronger in the U.S. than in Norway. These results suggest that policies aimed at preventing high school dropout need to address adolescent health, in addition to the unequal opportunities derived from socioeconomic disadvantage.publishedVersio