Jobba mer eller mindre? : En studie av den svenska statens syn på arbetstid som ett verktyg för förbättrad jämställdhet

This thesis investigates the view of the Swedish government on how working hours can be used as a tool to promote equality in Sweden. Previous research shows how women are experiencing a bigger challenge than men in achieving a balance between work and family life since they take a larger responsibility for the unpaid work at home. This leads to inferior prerequisites in life for women, which in turn means that we live in an unequal society. At the same time research shows that there are two ways to go when it comes to changing working hours in favour of equality: an extension of the working hours for women who work part-time or a shortening of the working hours over all in the Swedish society. The aim of this thesis is to investigate which of these alternatives that is promoted by the Swedish government. This will be done through a critical discourse analysis. The investigation shows that the Swedish government promotes the alternative where the women working part-time extend their working hours to full-time as a solution to the equality problem. This goes in line with what previous research has shown on this matter; that the working culture in Sweden is strong and that the idea of a “working line” is a strong concept that has been used since the start of the 20th century to this day. This also shows that there is a reigning discourse where it is not possible to talk about a shortening of working hours as a solution to the equality problem. As previous research has shown, this investigation also finds that the government continues to emphasize the economic consequences that come out of the fact that women to a large extent work part-time. The question of who is going to take care of the unpaid work at home when women starts to work full-time, however, remains unanswered.