This thesis consists of four constituent studies exploring several common themes: female participation in employment, normative assumptions regarding the proper roles of males and females, and social change. The underlying focus is gendered division of work, which is explored through the concept of family models. These models are conceptualized with reference to the interrelationships between female employment, availability of care services outside the family, and sharing of care work within the family. The empirical analysis is mostly based on the Baltic countries, but also includes Germany, Sweden, and Russia. By examining the variation between the countries, the research aims to highlight some common issues regarding the gendered division of work, issues that bridge the East/West divide. The data come from three sources: 1) available national descriptive statistics, 2) surveys, namely, the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) ‘Family and Changing Gender Roles’ modules and the European Values Survey (EVS), and 3) nineteen problem-centred interviews with women who experienced hardships in the Lithuanian labour market. The analyzed time period starts with the collapse of socialism. The studies call into question the assumption that strong support for the traditional ‘male breadwinner/female carer’ family model in post-socialist societies contributed to the exclusion of women from the labour market. Comparing male and female employment indicators revealed no general pattern of female exclusion from the labour market. Moreover, gender-role attitudes are neither uniform nor traditional in the studied societies. The most valid generalization would be that there is a trend towards less traditional attitudes over time, more precisely, towards greater acceptance of women’s working roles. Summarizing the current situation regarding the gendered division of work, with reference to policies, practices, and attitudes, reveals the presence of ‘adult worker’ family models in Eastern Europe.

The aim of this thesis is to describe Political Science students’ experiences of studies and work life. Students’ reflections on their study situation as well as their envisaged and later experienced work life have been analysed through cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data. Central research questions are how students at the beginning and the end of their studies perceive their study program, how the communication patterns between teacher and students are negotiated, and what discourses of knowledge and competence operate in the program and in work life as well as how students of Political Science experience the transition from higher education to working life at two Euro-pean universities, and how Political science students and students in two professional programmes experience the transition from higher education to work life. The empiri-cal studies are presented in four articles. Ethnography, phenomenography and dis-course analysis have been applied. The results show that students embark on the pro-gram with dreams of being in the halls of power in Brussels or becoming famous by appearing in the media. They are, however, also driven by a Bildung incentive. Towards the end of their studies, more down-to-earth visions of the future as investigators have replaced their previous dreams. Another result is the ongoing negotiations about their role and the purpose of e.g. seminars, which convey double messages about what to say and when to contribute. They also report a rational and generic relationship between their studies and the work tasks, indicating that they have acquired a set of general skills that are helpful for them in their work. When moving from studies into work life, they report having a feeling of being squeezed between the politicians and the general public. Surprisingly, few of them regard themselves as having power in the decision-making arena. Keywords: Higher education, Work life, Trajectories of learning, National comparisons, / Syftet med avhandlingen är att beskriva studenter inom statsvetenskap och deras resa genom akademin ut i arbetslivet. Genom att undersöka studenternas reflektioner och tankar kring sin studiesituation och hur de ser på sitt kommande arbete genom att an-vända en undersökningsdesign som består av en tvärsnittsstudie och en longitudinell studie. Med utgångspunkt i syftet har ett antal forskningsfrågor formulerats; Hur upp-fattas utbildningen av studenter i början och slutet av sina studier? Vilka diskurser kring kunskap och kompetens återfinns i studieprogrammen? Vilka diskurser kring kunskap och kompetens återfinns i arbetslivet? Hur upplever studenter i statsveten-skap vid två europeiska universitet övergången mellan akademi och arbetsliv? Hur upp-lever studenter i statsvetenskap och studenter från två professionsutbildningar över-gången mellan akademi och arbetsliv? De empiriska studierna rapporteras i fyra upp-satser. Etnografi, fenomenografi och diskursanalys är de metoder som använts vid ana-lyserna av empiriska data. Många studenter väljer att läsa statsvetenskap på grund av ett allmän- bildningsin-tresse, de uttrycker också drömmen om att få arbeta i maktens korridorer eller bli kän-da som experter i media. I slutet av sin utbildning infinner sig snarare en bild av en framtida roll som utredare. Eftersom studier i statsvetenskap har en rationell karaktär med fokus på generiska färdigheter är detta inte särskilt förvånande. En grupp studen-ter som följdes under sina första fem veckor i en seminarieserie fick dubbla signaler rörande sin roll vid seminarier. Relationen mellan utbildning och arbete beskrivs som i första hand rationell och generisk, dvs de har förvärvat allmänna färdigheter som är dem till stor hjälp i arbetet. När de som nya på arbetsmarknaden talar om sin identitet, framgår att de beskriver sig som klämda från två håll i sin roll som förmedlare mellan allmänheten och makthavarna. Förvånansvärt få anser att de har någon reell makt när det gäller beslutsfattande. Nyckelord: Högre utbildning, arbetsliv, lärande, identitet, nationella jämförelser, inter-nationella jämförelser, nybörjare, erfarna studenter, professionella noviser.