Politicising Women’s Part-Time Work in Norway: A Longitudinal Study of Ideas

Anne Lise Ellingsæter and Ragnhild Steen Jensen
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Anne Lise Ellingsæter: University of Oslo, Norway
Ragnhild Steen Jensen: The Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Norway

Work, Employment & Society, 2019, vol. 33, issue 3, 444-461

Abstract: Numerous studies have expanded the understanding of part-time work as a gendered labour market phenomenon. However, there has been little research into how societies perceive women’s part-time work over time. The passage of several decades since women in great numbers entered the labour market in Scandinavia, many in part-time jobs, provides an opportunity to investigate this. We examine ideas about the nature and desirability of part-time work for women based on government advisory commission reports published in Norway between 1978 and 2016. With the gender contract as a conceptual lens, this longitudinal study of ideas demonstrates how a changing national context transformed perceptions of women’s part-time work and the ‘woman worker’. From being a strategy for increasing women’s economic independence and individual choice, part-time work has become undesirable, whereas full-time work for all women is promoted. The ideational and institutional drivers of the politicisation of women’s part-time work are discussed.

Keywords: gender contract; ideas; Norway; part-time work; woman worker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:33:y:2019:i:3:p:444-461

DOI: 10.1177/0950017018821277

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