Sweden has been considered both `worker friendly' and `women friendly'. Both workers and women have called upon the welfare state to support their demands and they have also had some of their requests granted. Feminists' oldest and most important demand has been economic independence from men and the capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household including children.1 The article investigates whether women were closer to these goals in Sweden in the 1990s than in the 1970s, and whether this was achieved by commodification (paid work) and/or decommodification (transfers from the welfare state). The result is that women as a whole have become more economically independent of men in families, thanks to paid work, and that lone mothers' capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household has been upheld by transfers from the welfare state. However, the capacity of lone mothers to support themselves and their children through paid work has decreased. Overall, by the 1990s, women in Sweden were more economically independent from men than they had been in the 1970s. Similarly women's capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household had become greater, however, this is through higher transfers, not higher earnings from the labour market.
Bergqvist, C. and Nyberg, A. (2001) `Welfare State Restructuring and Childcare in Sweden' , in M. Rianne and M. Sonya (eds) Child Care Policy at the Crossroads: Gender and Welfare State Restructuring. New York: Routledge.
2.
Björklund, A. and Fritzell, J. (1992) Inkomstfördelningens utveckling (The Development of Income Distribution). Bilaga 8 till Långtidsutredningen 1992. Stockholm: Finansdepartementet.
3.
Borchorst, A. and Siim, B. (1987) `Women and the Advanced Welfare State: A New Kind of Patriarchal Power?', pp. 129-57 in A. Showstack Sassoon (ed.) Women and the State. London: Hutchinson.
4.
Duncan, S. (1996) `The Diverse Worlds of European Patriarchy', pp. 74-110 in M. D. Garcia-Ramon and J. Monk (eds) Women of the European Union: The Politics of Work and Daily Life. London and New York: Routledge.
5.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
6.
Esping-Andersen, G. and Korpi, W. (1987) `From Poor Relief to Institutional Welfare States' , pp. 39-74 in R. Erikson (ed.) The Scandinavian Model. New York: Sharpe.
7.
Fritzell, J. (1991) Inte av marknaden allena: Inkomstfördelningen i Sverige (Not from the Market Alone: The Distribution of Income in Sweden), Institutet för Social Forskning. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell.
8.
Gustafsson, B. and Uusitalo, H. (1990) `Income Distribution and Redistribution during Two Decades: Experiences from Finland and Sweden', pp. 73-95 in I. Persson (ed.) Generating Equality in the Welfare State: The Swedish Experience. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.
9.
Hernes, H. (1987) Welfare State and Women Power. Olso: Norwegian University Press.
10.
Hirdman, Y. (1990) `Genussystemet', in Demokrati och Makt i Sverige (The Gender System in Democracy and Power in Sweden). Maktutredningens huvudsrapport (SOU, 1990: 44). Stockholm: Fritzes.
11.
Hobson, B. (1990) `No Exit, No Voice: Women's Economic Dependency and the Welfare State', Acta Sociologica33(3): 235-50.
12.
Jansson, K. and Sandqvist, A. (1993) Inkomstfördelningen under 1980-talet (The Distribution of Income during the 1980s). Bilaga 19 till Långtidsutredningen 1992. Stockholm: Finansdepartementet.
13.
Korpi, W. and Palme, J. (1998) `The Paradox of Redistribution and the Strategy of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and Poverty in the Western Countries', American Sociological Review63: 661-87.
14.
Lewis, J. (1993) `Introduction: Women, Work, Family and Social Policies in Europe', pp. 1-24 in J. Lewis (ed.) Women and Social Policies in Europe: Work, Family and the State. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
15.
Lewis, J. (1997) `Gender and Welfare Regimes: Further Thoughts' , Social Politics4(2): 160-77.
16.
Lewis, J. and Ostner, I. (1991) `Gender and the Evolution of European Social Policies' , paper presented at the CES Workshop on Emergent Supranational Social Policy: The EC's Social Dimension in Comparative Perspective , Center for European Studies, Harvard University.
17.
Lister, R. (1994) `She Has Other Duties: Women, Citizenship and Social Security', pp. 31-44 in S. Baldwin and J. Falkingham (eds) Social Security and Social Change. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
18.
McFate, K., Smeeding, T. and Rainwater, L. (1995) `Markets and States: Poverty Trends and Transfer System Effectivenesss in the 1980s', pp. 29-66 in K. McFate, R. Lawson and W. Wilson (eds) Poverty Inequality and the Future of Social Policy: Western States in the New World Order. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
19.
McLaughlin, E. and Glendinning, C. (1994) `Paying for Care in Europe: Is there a Feminist Approach?', pp. 52-69 in L. Hantrais and S. Mangan (eds) Family Policy and the Welfare of Women, Cross-National Research Papers, Third Series, European Research Centre, University of Loughborough.
20.
Nyberg, A. (1997) Women, Men and Incomes: Gender Equality and Economic Independence, SOU, 1997: (87). Stockholm: Fritzes.
21.
O'Connor, J.S. (1992) `Citizenship, Class, Gender and the Labour Market: Issues of De-commodification and Personal Autonomy', paper presented at the Comparative Studies of Welfare State Development: Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions Conference, University of Bremen , 3-6 September.
22.
Orloff, A. (1993) `Gender and the Social Rights of Citizenship', American Sociological Review58: 303-28.
23.
Palme, J. (1990) `Pension Rights in Welfare Capitalism: The Development of Old-Age Pensions in 18 OECD Countries 1930 to 1985', dissertation. Stockholm: Institutet för Social Forskning .
24.
Pierson, P. (1996) `The New Politics of the Welfare State', World Politics48: 143-79.
25.
Sainsbury, D. (1994) Gendering Welfare States. London : Sage.
26.
Sainsbury, D. (1996) Gender, Equality and Welfare States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27.
Sainsbury, D. (ed.) (1999) Gender and Welfare State Regimes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28.
Siaroff, A. (1994) `Work, Welfare and Gender Equality: A New Typology' , pp. 82-100 in D. Sainsbury (ed.) Gendering Welfare States. London: Sage.
29.
Singh, R. (1998) Gender Autonomy in Western Europe: An Imprecise Revolution. London: Macmillan.
30.
Smeeding, T., Rainwater, L., Rein, M., Hauser, R. and Schäber, G. (1990) `Income Poverty in Seven Countries: Initial Estimates from the LIS Database', pp. 57-76 in T. Smeeding, M. O'Higgins and L. Rainwater (eds) Poverty, Inequality and Income Distribution in Comparative Perspective. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
31.
SOU (1998) Ty Makten är din . . . Myten om det rationella arbetslivet och det jämställda Sverige (The Power is Yours . . . The Myth of Rational Working Life and Gender Equal Sweden): (6). Stockholm: Fritzes.
32.
Statistics Sweden: Stockholm.
33.
Stephens, J. (1996) `The Scandinavian Welfare States: Achievements, Crisis and Prospects', pp. 32-65 in G. Esping-Andersen (ed.) Welfare States in Transition: National Adaptations in Global Economies. London: Sage .
34.
Sundström, M. and Dufvander, A.-Z. (1997) `Föräldraförsäkringen och jämställdheten mellan kvinnor och män' (Parental Allowance and Gender Equality) pp. 69-91 in I. Persson and E. Wadensjö (eds) Välfärdens genusansikte (SOU, 1998: 3) . Stockholm: Fritzes.
35.
Walby, S. (1994) `Methodological and Theoretical Issues in the Comparative Analysis of Gender Relations in Western Europe', in Environment and Planning, A26.
36.
Wilensky, H. (1975) The Welfare State and Equality. Berkeley: University of California Press.
