Women, Work, and Welfare: An Analysis of Social Change in Sweden

Abstract

This article focuses on processes of social change in Sweden, an advanced welfare state. It starts by pointing out the failure of contemporary welfare state theory to deal with the imbalance between the goal of equality and the goal of efficiency in the production and distribution of both capital and social values. Three processes of social change are examined: the marginalization of women in the labor market, increased use of decommodification processes by women, and the delayed entrance of young women into the labor market. It is argued that these processes are strong indicators that gains in equality won by and for women in the advanced welfare state may be ephemeral. Furthermore, recent research shows that women, anticipating this change, have already readjusted their role within the household to accommodate macro marginalization processes. The article concludes that within the welfare state, equality is forced to take a back seat to processes that enhance efficiency in the basic relationship between capital and labor.