Press Releases 1998

[Index]

SWEDEN: MORE HIGHER EDUCATED WOMEN THAN MEN IN COMING DECADES

6 March 1998

In many aspects, Sweden has gone far in solving gender inequality. It is possible for women to combine education and labour force participation with having children. The increase of child-care institutions and an improved parental insurance system have ensured that women are able to participate in education and paid occupations to almost the same extent as men.

These are some of the findings published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) in Fertility and Family Surveys in Countries of the ECE Region, Standard Country Report, Sweden.

The report also shows that in Sweden, the percentage of people with a higher education in 1994 was as high among women as among men. 25% of women aged 25-64 years have a post-secondary level education compared to 23% for men at the same age. About 63% of students graduating from post-secondary education were women. Since the predominance of women in higher education has been constant during the 1980s and in the first half of the 1990s, there will be more higher educated women than men in decades to come.

Parallel to this increase, female participation in professional activity has also been growing during the 1970s and 1980s. The main increase consists of part-time workers, many of whom work in the public sector. 89% of the women and 94% of men aged 25-54 are in the labour force. Among women 39% are working part-time.

This report is the result of a comprehensive survey research programme on partnership and reproductive behaviour which the Population Activities Unit of the UN/ECE began in the late 1980s with support from the United Nations Population Fund. This report is part of a series of 20 comparable country reports, which examine new trends and patterns of partnership and reproductive behaviour in Europe and North America.

Fredrik Granström, Fertility and Family Surveys in Countries of the ECE Region, Standard Country Report, Sweden, United Nations, Sales No. GV. E.97.0.21.

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