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This thesis attempts to extend the historical scope of divorce research in Sweden by providing an analysis ofhow the variations in the divorce rate over time and across geographical areas are connected to the economic, normative and institutional restructuring of Swedish society during the period 1915-1974. The thesis finds that the economic reshaping of Sweden into a modern market economy is at the center of the process that has resulted in decreased marital stability during the twentieth century. The shift from a single- to a dual-provider model and an increased integration of both men and women into market processes outside the family have resulted in lowered economic interdependence between spouses, which in turn has decreased the economic constraints to divorce. This conclusion is supported by the empirical finding that indicators of female economic self-sufficiency are associated with increased propensities for divorce, during the entire period under research in this thesis. That changes in the constraints experienced by women have been important is further emphasized by the finding that women have been more prone than men to initiate divorce, and that this gendered pattern of divorce was established already during the early twentieth century in Sweden.The results further indicate that the growth of divorce is connected not only to a shift in the provider model but also to the way sustained economic growth has resulted in a general increase in the resources available to individuals, as proposed by the socio-economic growth hypothesis. During the 1920s and 1930s, high-strata groups, such as lawyers, journalists, engineers and military officers, exhibited a divorce rate on the same level as in the general population of Sweden today. By the early 1960s, however, this positive associa- tion between social class and divorce had changed: by then it was rather couples in working-class occupations who exhibited the highest probability of divorce, which is a pattern that appears to have persisted since then. These findings indicate that a general increase and more even distribution of economic resources betweenboth genders and social classes have facilitated individuals' possibilities to sustain themselves independent of family ties. This democratization in the access to divorce has meant that growing segments of the populationhave gained the means to act on a demand for divorce.However, another result of the thesis is that it is not possible to limit the analysis to a strictly economic perspective. Rather, economic changes have interacted with and been reinforced by changes in values, as wellas in institutions, during the periods when widespread and rapid behavioral change has occurred. In Sweden, like in most other Western countries, this was primarily the case during the 1940s and a period covering approximately the second half of the 1960s and first half of the 1970s. The studies of the thesis suggest that these two periods of rapid growth in the divorce rate stand out as periods in Swedish history when attitudes also changed more rapidly toward values that can be regarded as permissive, secular and more open to indi- vidual freedom of choice. Trenchantly, these two periods also correspond to the two harvest periods in Social Democratic welfare state policy. In the thesis it is argued that the marked increase in government services and social security at these time points integrated with and reinforced economic restructuring in a way that worked to "de-familializate" individuals by making them less dependent on family ties for social security. Institutional changes of this type have been particularly important for making single life more feasible for women and low- income groups. In the thesis, it is argued that the timings of substantial behavioral change become difficult to understand if the analytical perspective does not explicitly incorporate how such contextual-level changes in values and institutions have integrated with changes in the provider model and the economy during thesedynamic periods of the divorce transition in Sweden.

During the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden, both the labor force participation rate of marriedwomen and the divorce rate increased more than during any other period of the twentiethcentury. Higher levels of extramarital fertility, cohabitation among unmarried spouses andincreasing age at first birth accompanied the rise of these two rates. These developmentsexemplify phenomena associated with the second demographic transition, and weremarkedly evident in Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s. Studying the national newspapersfrom 1964 to 1969, this paper traces the impact of these demographic and socioeconomicchanges on the public debate on divorce prior to the implementation of the 1974divorce law.The Swedish divorce law of 1974 was based on unilateral no-fault and thus meant aremoval of more or less all legal constraints against divorce. The aim of this paper is toidentify the normative views of divorce that dominated the public debate during the secondhalf of the 1960s, just prior to the implementation of the new divorce law. In thispaper, the daily press is used to detect the arguments that were publically raised for andagainst an increased access to divorce and how the argumentation changed over time.With regard to gender and socio-economic position, the study further identifies the participantsin the debate and whether they represented any political or other group affiliations.Focusing on this divorce debate, the findings will contribute to the knowledge onhow changes in cultural and normative values in society interact with dramatic demographicdevelopments and institutional changes.

This study outlines a long history of divorce in Sweden, recognizing the importance of considering both economic and cultural factors in the analysis of marital dissolution. Following Ansley Coale, the authors examine how a framework of multiple theoretical constructs, in interaction, can be applied to the development toward mass divorce. Applying a long historical perspective, the authors argue that an analysis of gendered aspects of the interaction between culture and economics is crucial for the understanding of the rise of mass divorce. The empirical analysis finds support for a marked decrease in legal and cultural obstacles to divorce already during the first decades of the twentieth century. However, economic structures remained a severe obstacle that prohibited significant increases in divorce rate prior to World War II. It was only during the 1940s and 1960s, when cultural change was complemented by marked decreases in economic interdependence between spouses, that the divorce rate exhibited significant increases. The authors find that there are advantages to looking at the development of divorce as a history in which multiple empirical factors are examined in conjunction, recognizing that these factors played different roles during different time periods.

Due to insufficient historical population data, there is limited knowledge about the demographic outcomes of colonisation. This study provides demographic evidence of the difficulties faced by the Sami – an indigenous population in Sweden – during nineteenth-century colonisation, as indicated by (1) high risks of migration and (2) low survival rates compared to non-Sami. The digitised parish registers of the Demographic Data Base (Umeå University) provide longitudinal, individual-level data on migration, mortality, and ethnic origin. Event history analysis reveals that the Sami were vulnerable, with a higher mortality rate than non-Sami, and that they were more prone to migrate from areas overcrowded due to an increased competition for land. However, regardless of ethnic origin, it was primarily the settlers who migrated, and who ran the lowest mortality risks. This result suggests a 'healthy settler effect', and diverse consequences of colonisation that did not always follow ethnic lines.

During the 1960s in Sweden, socioeconomic differentials decreased sharply and both the labor force participation of married women and aggregate divorce rates increased more rapidly than during any other period of the twentieth century. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the socioeconomic composition of the couple influenced the probability of divorce during this period of rapid restructuring. The study uses a large data set covering the entire married population of Sweden in 1960 and applies a binary model whereby the couples are analyzed as units rather than separate individuals to model divorce during the period from 1960 to1965. The main results show that the equalization process between genders and social classes during this period contributed to the decrease in marital stability. Dual-provider families exhibit substantially higher probabilities of divorce as compared to traditional single-provider families. We also find that the socioeconomic gradient of divorce had become negative by the early 1960s and that couples with low socioeconomic status contributed more to the increase in divorce than did couples in the higher strata. A difference between the results reached in this study and those from divorce research covering later decades is that children do not reduce the probability of divorce when the wife's labor force participation is controlled for. The results indicate that the determinants of divorce have varied across different phases of the divorce transition during the twentieth century and that a historical perspective is necessary if we are to understand the long-term process that has produced current marital behavior.

This study investigates how the probability to live alone has developed among working age individuals with and without disabilities in Sweden during the period 1993–2011 when extensive political reforms to improve the integration of disabled individuals in society were implemented. The results show that individuals with disabilities are approximately twice as likely to be living alone when compared to individuals without disabilities. People with disabilities were also more likely to report low life satisfaction, and this was especially true among individuals with disabilities living alone. Men and women with disabilities also tend to experience longer periods of living as a one-person household than non-disabled people. Over time we find no indications of reduced differences in family outcomes between disabled and non-disabled individuals but rather evidence to the contrary. These differences are interpreted as being the result of the disadvantage disabled individual's experience in the partner market and that people with disabilities are less successful in forming partnerships that can lead to cohabitation and family formation. The results thus show how disabled individuals still face societal barriers that limit their possibilities to find and sustain relationships that result in stable cohabitation despite increased efforts to improve their inclusion in Swedish society. ; DISMAW

AbstractWe use a set of linked reproductive histories taken from Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain for the period 1871–1960 to address key issues regarding how reproductive change was linked specifically to mortality and survivorship and more generally to individual agency. Using event-history analysis, this study investigates how the propensity to have additional children was influenced by the number of surviving offspring when reproductive decisions were made. The results suggest that couples were continuously regulating their fertility to achieve reproductive goals. Families experiencing child fatalities show significant increases in the hazard of additional births. In addition, the sex composition of the surviving sibset also appears to have influenced reproductive decisions in a significant but changing way. The findings offer strong proof of active decision-making during the demographic transition and provide an important contribution to the literature on the role of mortality for reproductive change.