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The aim of this article is to give an overview of gender equality policy in Sweden from the 1970s until today. A number of political measures and whether these measures individually, as well as combined, have promoted gender equality and the dual-earner/dual-carer model are described and analyzed. The conclusion is that the right to part-time work, publicly financed child care, parental leave, and tax deductions for domestic services make it easier for mothers to reconcile work and family, but do not challenge the distribution of family responsibilities between women and men. However, the individual right for fathers to 2 months of parental leave does challenge the gender order, to a certain extent, and fathers today participate more in care and domestic work than earlier. The dual-earner/dual-carer family is closer at hand when women have a higher education and earnings and thereby greater bargaining power. Employed work is more conditional among women with a lower education level, i.e., they may be employed but under the constraint that they are still responsible for care and domestic work in the family. Another constraint in this group where many work part-time is the lack of available full-time positions in the labor market.

The aim of this article is to give an overview of gender equality policy in Sweden from the 1970s until today. A number of political measures and whether these measures individually, as well as combined, have promoted gender equality and the dual-earner/dual-carer model are described and analyzed. The conclusion is that the right to part-time work, publicly financed child care, parental leave, and tax deductions for domestic services make it easier for mothers to reconcile work and family, but do not challenge the distribution of family responsibilities between women and men. However, the individual right for fathers to 2 months of parental leave does challenge the gender order, to a certain extent, and fathers today participate more in care and domestic work than earlier. The dual-earner/dual-carer family is closer at hand when women have a higher education and earnings and thereby greater bargaining power. Employed work is more conditional among women with a lower education level, i.e., they may be employed but under the constraint that they are still responsible for care and domestic work in the family. Another constraint in this group where many work part-time is the lack of available full-time positions in the labor market.

Sweden has been considered both `worker friendly' and `women friendly'. Both workers and women have called upon the welfare state to support their demands and they have also had some of their requests granted. Feminists' oldest and most important demand has been economic independence from men and the capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household including children.1The article investigates whether women were closer to these goals in Sweden in the 1990s than in the 1970s, and whether this was achieved by commodification (paid work) and/or decommodification (transfers from the welfare state). The result is that women as a whole have become more economically independent of men in families, thanks to paid work, and that lone mothers' capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household has been upheld by transfers from the welfare state. However, the capacity of lone mothers to support themselves and their children through paid work has decreased. Overall, by the 1990s, women in Sweden were more economically independent from men than they had been in the 1970s. Similarly women's capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household had become greater, however, this is through higher transfers, not higher earnings from the labour market.

L'État-providence a procuré des avantages substantiels aux femmes : leur dépendance économique à l'égard des hommes a diminué, grâce à l'augmentation conjointe de leurs salaires et des prestations liées au travail. Elles ont aujourd'hui davantage les moyens de subvenir à leurs propres besoins et, le cas échéant, à ceux de leurs enfants - notamment en cas de séparation ou de divorce. Toutefois, la division sexuelle du travail n'a pas diminué pour autant, comme l'attestent les différences maintenues entre les hommes et les femmes en matière de rémunérations et de transferts monétaires de l'État. Cet article met en évidence les changements qui se sont opérés quant à la dépendance respective des hommes et des femmes vis-à-vis du marché et de l'État depuis les années soixante-dix.

Les données provenant des dénombrements indiquent que la proportion des femmes mariées qui travaillent augmente considérablement dans tous les pays d'Europe depuis le début de ce siècle. Cependant cet accroissement n'est, dans une large mesure, qu'une construction sociale de la réalité, ayant pour seule base les idéologies qui prédominaient à l'époque et non une description correcte de la réalité. Si la définition actuelle de la main d'oeuvre avait été appliquée au début du siècle, le travail des ouvrières mariées aurait été évalué de façon complétement différente: on trouverait un taux élevé de participation des ouvrières au début du siècle, un taux bien moindre durant les années 1950 et 1960 et un taux croissant depuis les années 1960 et jusqu'à aujourd'hui.

The question of whether the Swedish welfare state experienced retrenchment during the 1990s is addressed within the context of the nation's child care system. An historical overview of the Swedish child care system's development is presented, emphasizing the expansion of public child care between the 1970s & 1990s, & the emergence of sentiment that advocated the ability to choose between public & private child care during the 1990s. Data measuring public expenditures on child care & child care enrollment are analyzed to determine whether Sweden's system is universalist. The quality of child care offered to Swedish families & the extent to which the system has been privatized are also examined. The issue concerning whether the Swedish system has succeeded in providing care to single & cohabiting mothers, working- & professional-class employees, unemployed people, & immigrants is investigated. While certain aspects of the Swedish child care system have been restructured, it is concluded that others have remained unchanged. 4 Tables, 2 Figures, 56 References. J. W. Parker

The question of whether the Swedish welfare state experienced retrenchment during the 1990s is addressed within the context of the nation's child care system. An historical overview of the Swedish child care system's development is presented, emphasizing the expansion of public child care between the 1970s & 1990s, & the emergence of sentiment that advocated the ability to choose between public & private child care during the 1990s. Data measuring public expenditures on child care & child care enrollment are analyzed to determine whether Sweden's system is universalist. The quality of child care offered to Swedish families & the extent to which the system has been privatized are also examined. The issue concerning whether the Swedish system has succeeded in providing care to single & cohabiting mothers, working- & professional-class employees, unemployed people, & immigrants is investigated. While certain aspects of the Swedish child care system have been restructured, it is concluded that others have remained unchanged. 4 Tables, 2 Figures, 56 References. J. W. Parker

Résumé La Suède a été un pays pilote dans la mise en œuvre d'une relation entre travail et droits sociaux qui autorise et développe, pour toutes et tous, l'accès à la pleine individualité, condition de la citoyenneté. En particulier, les charges éducatives y ont été considérées comme une responsabilité partagée entre les pères et les mères d'un côté, entre les parents et l'État de l'autre, ce dernier étant le garant du droit de l'enfant au bien-être et à l'éducation. La grave crise économique qu'a connue le pays dans les années quatre-vingt-dix s'est traduite par d'importantes restrictions budgétaires, en particulier dans le domaine de la protection sociale. Dans un contexte international où la crise des systèmes de protection sociale conduit à des recompositions des États providence, on questionne ici la résistance à cette crise, du modèle suédois de prise en charge des jeunes enfants.

How to respond to the needs of working parents has become a pressing social policy issue in contemporary Western Europe. This book highlights the politicising of parenthood in the Scandinavian welfare states - focusing on the relationship between parents and the state, and the ongoing renegotiations between the public and the private. Drawing on new empirical research, leading Scandinavian academics provide an up-to-date record and critical synthesis of Nordic work-family reforms since the 1990s. A broad range of policies targeting working parents is examined including: the expansion of childcare services as a social right; parental leave; cash benefits for childcare; and working hours regulations. The book also explores policy discourses, scrutinises outcomes, and highlights the similarities and differences between Nordic countries through analyses of comparative statistical data and national case studies. Set in the context of economic restructuring and the growing influence of neo-liberal ideology, each chapter addresses concerns about the impact of policies on the gender relations of parenthood. Politicising parenthood in Scandinavia is a timely contribution to ongoing policy debates on welfare state models, parenthood and gender equality. It will be of particular interest to students and teachers of welfare studies, family policy and gender studies

The aim of this report is to analyse employment segregation for women and men in the European labour market at both the sectoral and occupational levels. It provides a comparative analysis of trends in segregation across the 27 EU Member States, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and examines the root causes of the phenomenon, the consequences, and current and desirable policy responses. Gender-based employment segregation is so pervasive that distinctions have multiplied in order to facilitate analysis: occupational versus sectoral segregation, overall or horizontal versus vertical segregation, vertical versus hierarchical segregation. Horizontal segregation is understood as under- (over-) representation of a given group in occupations or sectors, not ordered by any criterion, and is often referred to as segregation tout court. Vertical segregation denotes the under- (over-) representation of the group in occupations or sectors at the top of an ordering based on 'desirable' attributes — income, prestige, job stability, etc. Finally, hierarchical segregation stands for under- (over-) representation of the group at the top of occupation-specific ladders. All forms of gender-based segregation are considered in this report, although overall and vertical segregation in occupations receive closest attention. The first part of the report examines levels and change in overall segregation in European countries (Chapter 1). It goes on to review the most important factors that impinge on segregation (Chapter 2) and to assess three main implications, namely undervaluation of women's work, confinement in 'low quality' jobs, and skill shortages (Chapter 3). Policies are reviewed and assessed in Chapter 4. The second part of the report summarises the highlights from case-study research conducted at national level on 10 occupational groups, the evidence from this research being used as a reference throughout the report. ; peer-reviewed