Part-time Employment in Swedish Retail Trade

By Inger Jonsson

A gender perspective on the development of working time patterns in the post-war labour market.

A gender perspective on the development of working time patterns in the post-war labour market.

For an increasing body of women in the post-war labour market, part-time work has become the norm rather than the exception. With a growing awareness of this and as the flexibility of working life has increased, part-time work has come to be seen in a new light. AN EU Directive on improved conditions for part-time workers, which includes an element of gender equality, is an expression of this change. The issue of making the access of women to the labour market an easier process is more problematic. The access to part-time work can also act as a trap, cementing a segmented, gender divided labour market. This study focuses on the retail trade, a traditionally women dominated sector, where part-time work has been common for many years.

Contact: Inger Jonsson, Dept of Economic History, Uppsala University.

inger.jonsson@ekhist.uu.se

FAS Newsletter (Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research; July 2002, no. 2)