Work, gender relations and mental illness in a Swedish context

..................................................................................................... 3 Sammanfattning på svenska ....................................................................... 5 Original papers ........................................................................................... 7 Prologue ..................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................. 12 Background .............................................................................................. 13 Public health perspectives ......................................................................... 13 A social humanistic approach to health and illness ....................................... 14 Gender theoretical perspectives ................................................................. 16 Gender relations ...................................................................................... 16 Gender relations in four dimensions ........................................................... 17 The gendered division of domestic work ..................................................... 17 Intersections of power relations ................................................................. 18 Gender equality – a multidimensional concept ............................................. 19 The convergence in health ........................................................................ 21 To address gender equality ....................................................................... 22 Gender relations at work and at home in relation to illness ........................... 23 Gendered organisation of paid work ........................................................... 23 Unpaid work at home ............................................................................... 25 Aim of the thesis ...................................................................................... 30 Methods .................................................................................................... 31 Setting ................................................................................................... 31 Gender equality in a Swedish context ........................................................ 31 Luleå – a town in the Northern Sweden ...................................................... 32 Population .............................................................................................. 33 Data collection for the quantitative analyses ............................................... 34 Data collection for the qualitative analyses ................................................. 35 Sample procedures .................................................................................. 36 Measures ................................................................................................ 37 Measures – questionnaire data .................................................................. 37 Measures –register data ........................................................................... 40 Analysis .................................................................................................. 41 Statistical analyses .................................................................................. 41 Qualitative analyses ................................................................................. 43 Ethical considerations............................................................................... 45 Results ..................................................................................................... 46 Quantitative descriptives .......................................................................... 46