This research project will investigate the ways in which women and men are unequally placed in the labour market. We will study the mechanisms that contribute to different educational choices among boys and girls, and what happens in the transition from education to work. Once men and women have entered the labour market, there are processes at play that contribute further to gender gaps in career development and wages. We will study how different welfare state arrangements affect these developments throu gh comparing Norway with other countries.
The research project consists of four main parts.
1) International comparisons across several countries, in order to investigate how different institutional contexts affect the extent to which men and women are unequally distributed in the labour market.
2) Comparisons of female career patterns in the United States and Norway, with particular focus on access to top positions, recruitment policies and decision making within the household.
3) Boys' and girls' edu cational choices and performance, attitudes towards female- or male typical study programs, and consequences for labour market entry in Norway.
4) Mechanisms that channel men and women into different positions within the Norwegian labour market over the life course.
We will be using different kinds of data sources. Some questions will be answered by using available large scale survey data, some by using data from Norwegian public registries that follow the population over many years, and some by collecting new data through case studies and questionnaires.
The project team consists of researchers from the Institute for Social Research in collaboration with the University of Oslo and the Oslo and Akershus College of Applied Sciences. For the internationa l comparisons we will collaborate with researchers at Boston University, Wellesley College, UC San Diego and the University of Basel