Equal opportunities – Free choice?

In this anthology a number of researchers describe the gender-divided labour market of the last decade. The last decade has seen changes to the composition of the population with regard to age and ethnicity, age at first motherhood, number of children, and choice of education. Women have moved upwards in the job hierarchy, due in part to their high level of education. However, progress is still slow considering the fact that the educational level of women is about to overtake that of men. Furthermore, women are still primarily getting jobs in female-dominant sectors such as the social sector and health care, while men are primarily getting jobs in male-dominant sectors such as iron/metal and building/construction. Therefore, apparently mechanisms still exist which retain women and men in specific roles in the workplace.