ABSTRACT
This chapter examines employment opportunities for women in rural areas in Norway. It focuses on the data from major sources to illustrate how different factors influence rural women's paid-work situation. As the Norwegian welfare state is built upon individual rights, in many cases the kind and level of social security rights available to an individual depends upon a person's taxable income. Several key factors constitute a set of opportunities and constraints for women's involvement in farm and off-farm work, thereby influencing the economic and social integration of farm women into rural economy. The chapter explores study areas of Namdal and Stjordal in the county of Nord-Trandelag in mid-Norway. The rate of economic activity for women has increased tremendously since the beginning of the 1970s. Among the economically active population in the study areas, women's education seems generally to be completed to a lower level than is the case for urban women, but at a higher level than for rural men.
