Educational reforms — Women’s life patterns: A Swedish case study

Abstract

This article focuses on reforms in Swedish higher education since the 1970s. It asks whether and, if so, how, these reforms affected women. Though the reform movement succeeded in bringing more of them into the university, women are still segregated into predominantly female fields. This segregation in higher education translates into occupational segregation in the workforce. The second half of the study asks why the reforms have failed to equalize men’s and women’s education and life-chances. Through the life history approach, the author finds that Swedish reforms proceeded on the basis of “rational efficiency” models which have little to do with how women make educational and work decisions. The author argues that in order for equalization to occur, the task will be to reform higher education in a way that matches rational efficiency with human sensibility.