State policy, labor market, and gender ideology in Norway and Sweden

This dissertation analyzes the emergence and development of gender-egalitarian policies in Norway and Sweden. Gender-egalitarian policies, such as public child care and parental leave provisions, encourage women's participation in the labor force and men's participation in family care-giving. Through an analysis of the post-World War II period (1945--1980s), I show how structural factors interacted with gender ideology and led to different gender-egalitarian policy outcomes in the two countries. The findings indicate that there are multiple social democratic paths to the development of social policy, thus challenging the assumption of a common Scandinavian model.; As changing demographics caused by declining fertility rates and higher life expectancy puts pressure on the welfare state, it becomes increasingly important for welfare states to maintain future financial viability by adopting policies that expand the number of workers contributing to the tax base. Gender-egalitarian policies appear particularly effective in this regard, as they encourage women's participation in the labor market while also providing generous benefits that result in comparatively high fertility rates. Thus, an understanding of the causal mechanism behind gender-egalitarian policy development contributes important knowledge to policy-makers. Employing an analytic comparative-historical method using new empirical data, I examine key explanatory factors for variation in gender-egalitarian policy development. Specifically, this includes (a) strength and cohesion of the women's movement, (b) gender ideological orientation of the political leadership within and outside the women's movement, (c) composition of the support base of incumbent social democratic/labor party, (d) economic policy, (e) religious influence, (f) strength of the periphery, and (g) central-local government decision-making. I provide another piece of the puzzle to existing welfare state scholarship by offering a new set of claims to be investigated through comparisons within the social democratic regime and across welfare state regime types.