Search

The link between gender equality and fertility has been the topic of a growing literature. Using data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) of 2012 (n=27,062 individuals, 39 countries), and applying multi-level modelling techniques, we explored the associations between individual gender egalitarian attitudes, societal gender equality and fertility ideals. The results show that individual gender egalitarianism is negatively associated with fertility ideals even across a broad set of countries from different regions. Additionally, we find that while societal gender equality is positively associated with fertility ideals, we also observe a small but statistically significant interaction effect between individual attitudes and societal gender equality. The cross-level interaction suggests that the negative fertility implications of individual egalitarian attitudes are amplified rather than mitigated in gender equal contexts. Thus, while the findings point to the potential importance of context and societal gender equality, they do not clearly confirm dominating theories. In future, the interplay between individual attitudes and societal support should be further explored in cross-country research, and more studies should include countries from the global South.

The aim of the article was to determine whether immigrant women's occupational status reflect a double disadvantage in comparison to immigrant men and inborn women and how patterns are formed by occupational segregation. The study utilised register data for descriptive comparisons of the immigrant and inborn populations in Sweden (n ≈ 4,900,000). Regression analyses were performed on nationally representative surveys of the immigrant (n ≈ 2600) and total (n ≈ 3200) labour force. The results do not support the notion of a double disadvantage. In the immigrant population, only women with primary/secondary education have jobs with lower average prestige than men, reflecting the fact that women are clustered in female-dominated occupations. Among immigrants with higher education, the gender gap is reversed, and men's disadvantage is explained by ethnic segregation. Compared to Swedish-born individuals, prestige gaps are substantially larger for men. After accounting for segregation, the gap is closed among women but not among men.

The study aims to explore whether gendered family roles in the country of origin and the country of destination explain labor market outcomes for immigrants in Sweden. We examine the assumptions of the source country culture literature—that traditional gender norms in immigrants' source countries drive women's employment in the new country—by focusing on gender differences and exploring group- and individual-level mechanisms, notably, that of care responsibilities. Using Swedish register data, comprising more than 660 000 individuals from 110 source countries, we analyze the labor market establishment of immigrant women and men in 2016 with multi-level regressions. Findings show that the gender gap in employment is significantly larger among groups from countries with low female labor force participation. Much of this gap is explained by women's care responsibilities, both at arrival and through continued fertility after arrival. Thus, even in Sweden, with longstanding policies promoting female employment, immigrant women's employment is conditioned by the gender-traditionality of their source countries. The findings question the gender-equalizing power of welfare state institutions in the face of increasing immigration. However, education crucially affects the implications of cultural background and fertility. In future research, these mechanisms—including the group-level correlations—should be further explored to better pinpoint the obstacles facing women from traditional countries.

BACKGROUND: The potential of flexible scheduling to alleviate work-family tensions and replace female part-time work has not been thoroughly explored. Specifically, research has not acknowledged that employees' schedule control may be conditioned by organizational demands for availability and commitment. OBJECTIVE: We examine the links between flexibility and gendered patterns of work-family reconciliation by considering how work arrangements balance employer demands and employee control and how they relate to work-family tensions. METHODS: Using mixed-methods, we combine a survey of Swedish parents (n=2320) with interviews of survey respondents (n=40). First, we identify clusters of flexible work arrangements and explore differences between mothers and fathers. Second, we analyze the relationship between flexible work arrangements and work-family tensions. Finally, the qualitative data are used to explore how flexibility/lack of flexibility enter into parents’ work-family tensions and negotiations. RESULTS: Three types of flexible work arrangements are found. Boundaryless jobs, which combine high levels of control with high requirements for organizational flexibility, are more common among fathers and highly educated. Confined jobs have low levels of both employee- and employer-oriented flexibility, but high demands, and are common among mothers and in female-dominated workplaces. Despite higher levels of control, boundaryless jobs are not associated with less work-family conflict. In malleable jobs, control is relatively high and demands low and work-family tensions are less noticeable. CONCLUSIONS: Employer- and employee-oriented flexibility go hand in hand, but work arrangements differ radically between groups. High flexibility does not alleviate work-family tensions, and part-time work remains an important work-family strategy for mothers.

Using longitudinal register data, we examined gender patterns in the long-term labor market establishment of refugees (n≈11 700) and Swedish-born individuals (n≈109 000). The main question was whether refugee women face greater difficulties than men and if gender differences can be attributed to care responsibilities. With multinomial logistic regression, cox regressions, and individual fixed effects models, refugees were observed at age 29-30 in 1997, then followed to age 50. Results show that both among refugees and Swedish-born, establishment was a protracted and insecure process for women. Over time, women caught up with men but in terms of stable employment, gender gaps prevailed throughout the fertile period and parenthood was negatively related to long-term establishment prospects. Future research should move beyond the focus on labor market entry to capture the mechanisms behind long term insecurities. The timing of parenthood and the importance of adult education are of particular interest.

Despite a persistent notion that women exit academia due to family responsibilities, research on exits is scarce. Based on 32 interviews, the paper explores how male and female PhDs recount the choice of leaving versus remaining in academia in terms of aspirations, opportunities and constraints. The main question is whether the exit/remain decision reflects gendered work-family strategies in a modern dual-earner society like Sweden. The narratives form a fourfold typology of strategic and accidental stayers, as well as strategic and accidental leavers. The analysis points to assymmetric opportunities connected to both gender roles and internal/external employment prospects. Family concerns formed a prominent reason for exit but problems of job insecurity and care involvement were highlighted by both men and women. Female but not male stayers could forsee obstacles and applied a range of strategies to minimize the impact of family on their careers. All in all, findings did not conform to prevailing notions of female exits but suggest that the academic career system present women and families with complex dilemmas even in a country with supportive policies. In future, exit processes should be furthered studied in other institutional contexts.

Background: Despite their disadvantaged labour market position, women consistently report higher levels of job satisfaction than men. Researchers have attributed women's higher job satisfaction to their lower expectations, arguing that gender differences will fade away as women's labour market prospects improve. Others, however, argue that women are more contented than men because their jobs satisfy a need for family adaptions. Objective: In this article, we put the hypotheses of transitions and trade-offs to a strong test, by comparing men and women with comparable human capital investments living in a country where women's employment is strongly supported by policies, practices and social norms. Methods: The relationship between gender and job satisfaction is analysed with stepwise OLS regressions. The analysis is based on a survey to newly graduated highly educated men and women in five occupations in Sweden (n≈2 450). Results: First, we show that, after controlling for a range of job characteristics, women report a higher level of job satisfaction than men. Second, although the paradox appears to be surprisingly persistent, it cannot be attributed to work-family trade-offs. Conclusions: Future research should consider job satisfaction more broadly in the light of gender role socialization and persistent gender inequalities.

Statutory rights to part-time work are increasingly discussed and institutionalized, but have been little empirically investigated. On the basis of a survey of Swedish parents (n = 1900), the article explores the usage and usefulness of the right to work hour reductions in relation to career-family dilemmas. The results show that the gender composition of the workplace affects both mothers’ and fathers’ likelihood of reducing work hours. Mothers who reduce work hours experience lower work-family conflict but stronger fears of negative career repercussions. For fathers, the implications of work hour reductions vary with the gender composition of the workplace. Meanwhile, the division of housework is related both to the likelihood of reducing work hours and to its implications. The analysis suggests that even when a statutory right to part-time is provided, workplace norms and men’s participation in housework are crucial for changing gender patterns.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether women in a dual-earner context acquire family-friendly jobs as a strategy to keep work–family conflict down. The analysis is based on a survey of newly graduated highly educated men and women in five occupations in Sweden (n ≈ 2400). The sample was stratified by occupation and gender to minimize the influence of factors other than gender. The results show that women are more family-oriented, but also more career-oriented than men in their professional strategies. In their jobs, women have less control over work and schedules than men but a similar level of work demands. However, women face lower requirements for employer flexibility (e.g. frequent over time) and this is related to their professional strategies. Finally, women report a higher level of work–family conflict than men in the same occupation, but this gender difference becomes non-significant when accounting for women's lower level of control. In sum, women in this sample clearly aim for both family and career and do not acquire family-friendly jobs, but aim to avoid 'family-unfriendly' requirements for constant availability. To some extent, this enables them to limit their work–family conflict but due to their lower control over work, women still experience more conflict than men in the same occupation.

Despite higher educational investments, women fall behind men on most indicators of labour market success. This study investigates whether workplace skill investments set men and women off on different tracks in which the human capital acquired through higher education is either devalued or further developed. A sample of Swedish men and women who recently graduated from five educational programs, leading to occupations with different gender composition, is analysed. Results show that, a few years after graduation, men are more likely than women to acquire complex jobs and that this difference contributes to early career gender gaps in wage and employee bargaining power. The findings do not support the notion that child-related work interruptions provide a main mechanism for sorting women into less complex jobs.

In current research, the extensive family policies of the Scandinavian countries have been problematized and described as hampering women?s careers. However, mechanisms have been little investigated and the Scandinavian countries are often regarded as a single policy model. Based on an account of institutional variety we study gender gaps in hourly wages and access to authority positions in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and explore the importance of segregation, skills and work interruptions. The analysis uses pooled cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 2004 and 2010. The results show that gender gaps vary both in size and regarding the mechanisms producing them. In particular, we find that gender segregation has a radically different impact in the four countries. The analysis suggests that the mechanisms linking family policies to labour market outcomes are more complex than envisaged in the current debate and point to the importance of comparing seemingly similar countries.

A longstanding notion in labor market theory is that women accommodate family responsibilities in their occupational and job choices. Utilizing a survey of newly graduated highly educated men and women in five occupations in Sweden (n≈2400), the article explores whether men and women differ in their professional strategies and if such differences produce early career wage gaps. Findings based on OLS regressions show that women express dual commitment to work and family; compared with men, they value ‘family-friendly’ work-conditions higher but do not value wages and career lower. Parenthood is not related to lower levels of career focus, but neutralizes occupational differences in family focus for women. Despite the select sample, women have lower wages than men, but the wage gap is not explained by different prioritization of family/career. The findings suggest that assumptions about gendered skill investments must be empirically scrutinized and theories further developed.

Recent research has suggested that there is a trade-off between the family-friendliness' of jobs, occupations and welfare states on the one hand and women's relative wages on the other. In particular, the extensive family policies found in Scandinavia are thought to harm highly educated women by affecting occupational segregation and workplace skill development. In this article, we use pooled wage data from the European Social Survey of 2004 and 2010 to examine the mechanisms behind the gender wage gap in Germany, Sweden and the UK and compare the situation of high- and low-skilled employees. Our findings show that the gender wage gap among high-skilled employees in Sweden is larger than in the UK, but not larger than in Germany. Also, segregation and work-related training are no more important in Sweden than in the other countries. Another important finding is that the mechanisms behind the gender wage gap differ between high- and low-skilled employees in ways not predicted by the trade-off argument. In particular, the large unexplained wage gap among high-skilled employees provides new theoretical challenges.

A conspicuous finding in research on the gender wage gap is that wages are related to the percentage females in an occupation (percent F). Three mechanisms have been suggested to explain this relationship: a devaluation of women’s work, a crowding of women into a limited number of occupations, and a female disadvantage in the accumulation of specific human capital. In this analysis, based on data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey of 2000 (n = 2915), we distinguish between these mechanisms using measures of devaluation (Treiman’s prestige scale), crowding (employee dependence on current employer) and specific human capital (on-the-job training). The results show that all the indicators are related to percent F, but not in a linear fashion, and that the percent F-effect on wages is overstated and misspecified. Female-dominated occupations stand out with lower wages than both male-dominated and gender-integrated occupations and this is not explained by any of our measures. Thus, if the hypotheses on segregation and wages should be sustained, they must be further specified and new measures must be found to prove their worth.

This article aims to examine whether the access to initial on-the-job training differs by gender and to what extent gender differences can be explained by occupational segregation, human capital, and the division of labour in the household. While much research has focussed on formal on-the-job training, I use a measure of initial on-the-job training, or the amount of formal and informal training required to perform a job well. Data come from the Swedish Level of Living Survey 2000 ( n = 2,913) and multilevel regression techniques are used. The results show that occupational segregation has a clear mediating effect on the gender difference in initial on-the-job training. The gender gap is reduced by one third when occupation is controlled for and training is related to the number of women in the occupation. Yet, a considerable gap is found also between men and women in the same occupation. This is not explained by human capital investments, nor by female overeducation in relation to the requirements of the job. The gender gap widens in the ages around 30, but factors such as motherhood, work interruptions, and housework are not related to on-the-job training, and part-time work explains very little of the gender gap.