Elien Dalman
Postdoctoral fellow
Social stratification of men and women in Sweden 1880-2015
Author
Summary, in English
I describe changes in the social structure of the Swedish workforce over the long term. Occupational coding from nine full count censuses from 1880 until 1990 and 2001-2016 occupational registers is aligned to comprehensively map social stratification for birth cohorts born 1820-1985. We show occupational upgrading for working women and men over the past 150 years. The male and
female workforce converge to a similar ‘big class’ structure by the 2000s, while important ‘horizontal’ gender differences remain at the level of microclasses. Before 1900 social class was intertwined with marital status for many: men transitioned from farm work to farming, and women from domestic
service to housework upon marriage. In the second half of the twentieth century marital status and social class became disentangled, as farming classes were decimated. Occupational upgrading of the workforce was limited to the higher social strata after 1960. Professional and supervisory classes grew at the cost of skilled manual classes and self-employed farmers. The size of lower social strata, increasingly composed of immigrant groups, has been constant since 1960. In contrast, immigrant groups formed a small elite in Sweden around 1900.
female workforce converge to a similar ‘big class’ structure by the 2000s, while important ‘horizontal’ gender differences remain at the level of microclasses. Before 1900 social class was intertwined with marital status for many: men transitioned from farm work to farming, and women from domestic
service to housework upon marriage. In the second half of the twentieth century marital status and social class became disentangled, as farming classes were decimated. Occupational upgrading of the workforce was limited to the higher social strata after 1960. Professional and supervisory classes grew at the cost of skilled manual classes and self-employed farmers. The size of lower social strata, increasingly composed of immigrant groups, has been constant since 1960. In contrast, immigrant groups formed a small elite in Sweden around 1900.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
- Centre for Economic Demography
Publishing year
2022-04-23
Language
English
Links
Document type
Conference paper: abstract
Topic
- Economic History
- Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Keywords
- Social Stratification
- Gender
- Migrant Status
- Social Class
- Marital Status
- Long-term development
Conference name
Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility 2022 meeting
Conference date
2022-04-21 - 2022-04-23
Conference place
London, United Kingdom
Status
Published