Within the field of welfare research, few people take into account both the aspect of gender and class. Thetraditional class-oriented research has a one-dimensional perspective on gender and the feminist welfare researchrarely carry out large comparative studies. A multi-dimensional perspective on the construction ofgender and class would benefit from both the feminist and class welfare-oriented research, and contribute toincreasing the knowledge about the individual's experience and attitudes to work and work time. The aim ofthis paper is to examine the correlation of the intersectional relationship between sex / gender position andclass position with the attitudes and motives for working time reduction. Especially in, (1) the value in work,and (2) the attitude to a high number of working hours, as well as (3) its combined effect on the conflict betweenwork and family. Countries compared are: Sweden as a social-democratic country and the UnitedStates as a liberal country, based on the similarities in high amount of working mothers and influentialwomen’s movements as well as in there different strategies in the labour market. The survey data collectionis conducted by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and based on the 2006 survey Role of GovernmentIV, 2005 survey Work Orientation III and the 2002 survey Family and Changing Gender Roles III.The results from this study show that there is general support, in Sweden and the United States, towards theworking society. Meanwhile, there is also support for the state to reduce the working hours. In brief summary,employees value their work highly and are generally receptive to working long hours. However, itdoes not create a perception of high conflict between work and family responsibilities. It has been interpretedas a general positive attitude towards work society, and indications that the work is an important part of anindividual's identity and individuality. With these three motives as the starting point, the attitude towards thestate's responsibility to reduce working hours was studied. The result was a generally high support, especiallyin a Swedish context. Politicization in relation to sympathetic pattern was seen as explanations, basedon the fact that the issue of working time reduction is a central part of the Swedish media and political arenaas well as the working class and women's movement are the main actors promoting the issue.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-58480 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Brydsten, Anna |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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