Karin Halldén

A Scandinavian success story? Women’s labour market outcomes in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

In current research, the extensive family policies of the Scandinavian countries have been problematized and described as hampering women’s careers. However, mechanisms have been little investigated and the Scandinavian countries are often regarded as a single policy model. Based on an account of institutional variety we study gender gaps in hourly wages and access to authority positions in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and explore the importance of segregation, skills and work interruptions. The analysis uses pooled cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 2004 and 2010. The results show that gender gaps vary both in size and regarding the mechanisms producing them. In particular, we find that gender segregation has a radically different impact in the four countries. The analysis suggests that the mechanisms linking family policies to labour market outcomes are more complex than envisaged in the current debate and point to the importance of comparing seemingly similar countries.

Taking Training to Task Sex of the Immediate Supervisor and Men’s and Women’s Time in Initial On-the-Job Training

This study examines the effect of the sex of the immediate supervisor on the length of time men and women spend in initial on-the-job training (OJT). Using the 2000 Swedish Level of Living Survey and matched employer registry data, this study indicates that men have greater chances of receiving long initial OJT compared with women. In addition, for women employed in the private sector, the chances of receiving long initial OJT are higher if the immediate supervisor is male. For women with a public sector job or for men irrespective of sector, time in initial OJT is independent of the sex of the immediate supervisor.

Quality of work and job satisfaction: comparing female part-time work in four European countries

ABSTRACT Adding to the debate on the integrative or marginalizing nature of female part-time work, this article provides a comparative analysis of the implications of female part-time work for different intrinsic job quality dimensions and job satisfaction. Drawing on national micro-data from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, our multivariate analyses show cross-national similarities in terms of lower job learning opportunities for female part-timers. We found a significantly higher incidence of repetitiveness only among Swedish female part-timers and lower degrees of task discretion among British, Dutch, and Swedish women working part-time hours. Female part-timers were either equally satisfied with their work as female full-timers or even more satisfied. This held true also after accounting for the lower intrinsic job quality of part-time work. While women working part-time hours were as affected by their job quality characteristics as were full-timers, we conclude that the shorter hours of work per se provide an important additional source of job satisfaction.

Stagnation only on the surface? The implications of skill and family responsibilities for the gender wage gap in Sweden, 1974-2010

The wage differential between women and men persists in advanced economies despite the inflow of women into qualified occupations in recent years. Using five waves of the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey (LNU), this paper explores the gender wage gap in Sweden during the 1974-2010 period overall and by skill level. The empirical analyses showed that the general gender wage gap has been nearly unchanged for the past 30 years. However, the gender difference in wage in less qualified occupations fell considerably, whereas the gender pay gap remained stable for men and women in qualified occupations. The larger significance of family responsibilities for wages in qualified occupations is one likely explanation for this result.

Gender of the immediate manager and women's wages: The importance of managerial position

One argument for increasing female representation in management is the expectation that female managers will be particularly beneficial for female employees through, e.g., role modeling, mentoring or providing other incentives to enhance female productivity. We explore this issue by analyzing the association between womens wages and the gender of their immediate managers using Swedish matched employee-employer data from 2010. Contrary to the expected positive association, we find that wages are overall 3% lower for female employees with a female instead of male manager. However, dividing the sample by managerial position and controlling for the sorting of employees with respect to, e.g., non-cognitive traits, work tasks, family commitment and establishment gender composition, the negative association is found only for female employees working for lower-level managers, not for women with a manager at the highest rank. One possible explanation could be a difference in decision-making power if lower-level female managers have more limited resources for their subordinates compared to lower-level male managers.

Immediate Manager Gender and Wages of Female Employees: The Importance of Manager Position

One argument for increasing female representation in management is the anticipation that female managers will be particularly beneficial for female employees through, e.g., role modeling, mentoring or providing other incentives to enhance female productivity. We explore this issue by analyzing the association between female wages and the gender of their immediate managers using Swedish matched employee-employer data. Contrary to the expected positive association, we find that wages are overall 3% lower for female employees with a female instead of male manager. However, dividing the sample by managerial position, and controlling for important sorting of employees with respect to, e.g., non-cognitive traits, work tasks and establishment gender composition, the negative association is found only among female employees working for lower-level managers, not for a manager at the highest level of management. One possible explanation could thus be a difference in decision-making power if lower-level female managers have more limited resources for their subordinates compared to lower-level male managers.