Marianne Nordli Hansen

The Scandinavian Welfare State Model: The Impact of the Public Sector on Segregation and Gender Equality

Comparative studies of sex segregation indicate that the levels in the Scandinavian countries are high, especially in Norway. Observers tend to link this to various aspects of the social democratic welfare state. This article examines the thesis that the public sector in the Scandinavian welfare state model is an attractive employer for women, with regard to both working conditions and wages. The data consist of a sample from the 1990 Norwegian population census of men and women between the age of 40 and 45. The economic consequences of the same occupational choices are shown to vary for men and women. The men have greater earnings advantages if they choose occupations in the private sector with low proportions of women. The earnings advantages for women in such occupations, compared to women in public sector occupations, are far lower. Further, the earnings of women in private sector male-dominated occupations are influenced by their childcare responsibilities. The higher the childcare responsibilities, the lower the earnings. No effects of childcare responsibilities are found among women in public sector occupations with large proportions of men. These findings thus indicate that the size and the organisation of the public sector in Scandinavia contributes to sex segregation in the labour market.

Closure in an Open Profession. The Impact of Social Origin on the Educational and Occupational Success of Graduates of Law in Norway

Education in law in Norway must be characterised as an open educational field, with lower entry requirements than other prestigious professional fields. Such an open system might be expected to lead to a high degree of equality by social class origin among the graduates. The impact of social origin is assessed at different steps of the educational and occupational career in a unique sample consisting of all Norwegian graduates in law between 1981 and 1996. The results demonstrate that there is a high level of social inequality in academic performance, which is greater at later stages than early in the educational career. Large and increasing income inequality is found also, for graduates with equal levels of academic performance. Various mechanisms that may produce this pattern are discussed, including specific forms of cultural capital, such as knowledge about strategies of self-employment, social and financial capital.

Determination of chlorinated pesticides by capillary supercritical fluid chromatography—mass spectrometry with positive- and negative-ion detection

Abstract An interface between a capillary supercritical fluid chromatograph and a double-focusing mass spectrometer was developed. Modification of the standard electron ionization (EI)-chemical ionization (CI) combination ion source was necessary to obtain useful mass spectra with negative-ion detection. A detection limit in the lower nanogram range of the chlorinated pesticides (DDT and dieldrin) was found irrespective of the mode of detection. Positive-ion methane CI resulted in a relatively abundant [M+ H]+ ion, whereas positive-ion isobutane and ammonia CI appeared not to be amenable to the detection of chlorinated pesticides. The EI-charge exchange mass spectra of the investigated pesticides generally did not match the library mass spectra. In the negative-ion mode, CO2 was an efficient moderating gas giving relatively large amounts of M−·, in addition to some fragment ions. More fragmentation was observed when N2O replaced CO2 as the mobile phase. No major effects on the mass spectra, obtained by using pure mobile phase, were observed on adding methane, isobutane or ammonia.

Earnings in Elite Groups: The Impact of Social Class Origin

The question addressed here is whether, and to what extent, social class origin has an impact on earnings among people with similar educational credentials and similar occupational positions. It is argued that earnings advantages of those originating in the upper or upper-middle classes are likely to be found primarily among those who choose education and occupations in the sector of their origin, and in occupations in which the criteria for measuring work performance are unclear. These assumptions are tested out on data on a selection of upper-level educational and occupational groups from the Norwegian censuses of 1980 and 1990. The analyses document that those who have experienced social mobility tend to get the lowest earnings, but the pattern of earnings inequality varies with educational and occupational group. Those originating in the cultural sector gain the greatest earnings advantages there, whereas the highest earnings among managers and business executives are found among those who originate in the business environment.

Forms of Capital and Modes of Closure in Upper Class Reproduction

We investigate the recruitment into the upper class, analysing the impact of different forms of capital and modes of closure. Unlike many Bourdieu-influenced approaches to class, we systematically investigate divisions by composition of capital: the relative weight of economic to cultural capital. We find capital-specific barriers to mobility: access to the upper class fractions is not only differentiated by one’s parents’ volume of capital or the general class hierarchy, but also by the relative weight of cultural to economic capital. Drawing on theories of social closure, we further investigate the role of two distinct modes of closure – credentialism and private property. The degree of closure differs significantly between subfractions of the upper class, based on the degree to which they refer to positions involving specific credential requirements. Our findings underline the importance of capital composition, but also that closure operates by neither credentials nor property alone.

Closure in the Elite Professions: The Field of Law and Medicine in an Egalitarian Context.

Abstract This article examines if and how the elite professions of law and medicine have managed to maintain their exclusivity in a period of educational expansion in Norway. The extent to which these professions disproportionately recruit students with socio-economically advantageous backgrounds is seen as an indication of intergenerational closure. Using registry data covering the entire population of Norway over a 26-year time span, we show that even though these two professions have experienced growing numbers of candidates, they manage, partly due to different institutional strategies, to maintain their exclusivity. Parents’ income and self-recruitment are relatively stable and important factors for the recruitment in both fields, although these trends are somewhat higher in law than in medicine. Drawing on Turner’s (1960) ideal-typical concepts of contest and sponsor mobility, we pinpoint institutional differences between the types of education provided for both groups and how these have adapted to meet the expansion in candidates seeking to qualify as lawyers and doctors.