The demand for labour in the growing Swedish economy after the Second World War brought new life to the discussions of part-time work as a means to facilitate married women's participation in paid work. In spite of an ambivalent attitude from employers, trade unions and women's organisations, the idea of ...
(Show more)The demand for labour in the growing Swedish economy after the Second World War brought new life to the discussions of part-time work as a means to facilitate married women's participation in paid work. In spite of an ambivalent attitude from employers, trade unions and women's organisations, the idea of part-time employment as a solution to a work-life balance problem mainly experienced by women, gained ground during the 1960s. Concurrently with the increasing use of part-time employed women in certain trades, such as retail, there was a growing awareness of the drawbacks and part-time work was reassessed as rather being an obstacle for, than promoting, equal opportunities. Already in the 1970s the Commercial Employees' Union, Handelsanställdas förbund, argued that the part-time problem contributed to maintaining the gender division of labour - both in the labour market and in the household. The employers in the trade had, on the other hand, gone from being sceptical to part-time work to claiming the need for part-time employments as a flexibility strategy. The changes in how part-time employment has been interpreted demonstrate the need for a historical perspective in order to assess part-time work today. Several international comparative studies have also highlighted the complexity concerning part-time work and there is a growing awareness of the need for more elaborated models of explanations. As an important female dominated union, Handelsanställdas Förbund has during the period after the Second World War, played a significant role considering the development of part-time employment - both as a social and as a discursive practice. The aim of my project, concerning the development of part-time employment in the Swedish retail trade since the Second World War, is to analyse the role played by the system of industrial relations in shaping a gendered working time regime and a changing discourse of part-time work. Acting within a system of industrial relations Handelsanställdas förbund has had to consider a number of interrelated factors such as changing labour market conditions and regulations, a changing gender discourse and diverging interest - not only between different trade unions or between the union and women's organisations, but also within the union itself.
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