Folkhemmets paradoxer. Genus och etnicitet i den svenska modellen

Abstract

During the post-war period the Swedish model crystallised in the working life and in society as a whole. Paradoxically it appears that the model's aim, which was to achieve a higher standard of living as well as increased citizen participation and equality, has been overshadowed by obvious tendencies to segregation and exclusion. This is particularly true for those groups of people who were integrated into the labour märket after the war. This is evidenced by the ever greater significance of race and gender as grounds for segregation. The role of history as a space where identities are constructed calls for an examination of historians' representations of these changes in working life. This is discussed on the basis of two studies, which have set the tone for historical analysis after the war. These considerations of contemporary processes can be seen as two ways of conceptualising the transition between qualitatively different historical periods. At a deeper level, I interpret this writing of history as part of the construction of two parallel narratives without any connection with one another. This reductionist history with gender and ethnicity as two separate categories has contributed to an understanding of changes in the workplace as a process where both "femininity" and "immigrant status" are regarded as the exception while "Swedishness" and "masculinity" remain the self-evident norm in the workplace and on the labour märket. The artide argues for a new understanding of the changes in working life and in paiticular of the differentiation of labour focussing on those processes which by constituting a norm maintain and legitimise segregation. I suggest a a new periodisation of the post-war period. This forms the basis for an interpretation, which, by integrating the perspectives of gender and ethnicity, reveals one of the Swedish model's major paradoxes, namely the segregation of labour on the basis of gender and race. This process has roots in the past and has been institutionalised by actions, values and rules that are reproduced at different levels in working life and in society.