Lena Gonäs - Gender Segregation: Divisions of Work in Post-Industrial Welfare States

Divisions of Work in Post-Industrial Welfare States

Edited by
Lena Gons and Jan CH Karlsson
Karlstad University, Sweden

First published 2006

by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016

by Routledge
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Copyright 2006 Lena Gons and Jan Ch Karlsson

Lena Gons and Jan Ch Karlsson have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as editors of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gender segregation: divisions of work in post-industrial
welfare states
1.Sexual division of labor 2.Women employees 3.Employee
rights 4.Sexual division of labor - Sweden 5.Women
employees - Sweden 6.Employee rights - Sweden
I.Gonas, Lena, 1945- II.Karlsson, Jan, 1948
306.3'615

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gender segregation: divisions of work in post-industrial welfare states / edited by
Lena Gons and Jan Ch Karlsson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7546-4453-7
1. Sexual division of labor--Europe--Case studies. 2. Sexual division of labor-
United States. I. Gons, Lena, 1945- II. Karlsson, Jan, 1948
HD6060.65.E85G455 2005
306.3'615094--dc22
2005030367

ISBN 9780754644538 (hbk)
ISBN 9781138251069 (pbk)

Transfered to Digital Printing in 2012

Lisbeth Bekkengen is a Researcher and has a PhD in Working Life Science from the University of Karlstad, Sweden.

Ann Bergman is a Senior Lecturer and has a PhD in Working Life Science at the University of Karlstad, Sweden.

Rosemary Crompton is Professor of Sociology at the City University London, UK.

Ruth Emerek is Associate Professor at the Institute for History, International and Social Studies at Aalborg University Centre.

Lena Gons is Professor in Working Life Science at the University of Karlstad, Sweden.

Liselotte Jakobsen is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Karlstad, Sweden.

Jan Ch. Karlsson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Karlstad.

Diane Perrons is Reader in Economic Geography and Gender Studies and Director of the Gender Group at London School of Economics, UK.

Chris Tilly is Professor at the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA.

Gender segregation in the labour market has been studied by researchers from different disciplines for decades. Studies have been performed on the labour market level and in work organizations. Also individual outcomes in relation to wages, working contracts and working conditions have been in focus as well as health effects.

The objective with this book is to give a picture of the contemporary social science research in the field and with an international comparative perspective. A background to work is to be found in the research and development project Gender and Work that was launched at the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm, Sweden in 1999. It was a project uniting research and more practical development work on work place level based on a multidisciplinary approach. A specific task was to study relations between segregation and health.

The project group Gender and Work arranged the third international congress on Women, Work and Health held in Stockholm in June 2002. At the congress two symposia were arranged in cooperation with researchers from the department of Working Life Science at the University of Karlstad. One seminar was arranged by professor Lena Gons and the other by professor Jan Ch Karlsson at the University of Karlstad. This book contains papers from these symposia.

Lena Gons
Jan Ch Karlsson

, The New Economy and the Work Life Balance: Conceptual Explorations and a Case Study of New Media, by Diane Perrons. Published in Gender, Work and Organisations , 2003, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 6593.

, Employment, Flexible Working and the Family, by Rosemary Crompton. Published in British Journal of Sociology , 2002, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 537558.

We gratefully acknowledge the permission from the publishers to include these articles in our book.

Lena Gons and Jan Ch Karlsson

The objective of this book is to discuss if and to what extent gender divisions in working life are changing. In doing so, we will explore implications of gender segregation and possible openings for integration at different levels in society. Gender segregation is discussed from two perspectives; a labour market perspective and a family-work level perspective. The authors unite these perspectives and discuss if and where we can find patterns of gender integration and where there still is stability and continuity in gender relations. By applying a multidisciplinary approach and illustrating our problem area with development on different analytical levels we hope to further the discussion on how and in what ways integration can be pursued.

In a long perspective the segregation patterns have changed towards a more even distribution of women and men over occupations and sectors in the labour market in most countries (Rubery et al., 1999). At the same time, countries with high female employment rates have high segregation levels. Studies on the development in the European Union show that there is a positive correlation between employment rates and segregation levels (Rubery et al., 1999; Emerek et al., 2001). As more women enter the labour market they are recruited into sectors and work tasks that already are defined as female jobs, and they are doing service jobs earlier performed in the household but now transformed into market work. Growing welfare state labour markets produce health, education and services and have become major employers of women. The dual dependency between the post industrial welfare state and the growing female labour force has formed new relations in the labour market and in the political arena. Women are dependent on the welfare state for the supply of child and elderly care to be able to take a job at the same time as these services are their major labour market, at least in the Nordic welfare states. In other welfare state regimes the relations are different, and as can be seen from many studies, the support from the state to develop a social infrastructure that support womens paid employment varies (Lewis, 1993; orloff, 1993; Plantenga and Hansen, 1999a and b; Sainsbury, 1999). The retrenchment of the welfare state during the crises of the 1990s had gendered consequences. Plantenga and Hansen cited the Spanish expert in a benchmarking report from the EU network Gender and Employment: