ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the effects on women in Swedish working life. It explores the gendered patterns in bargaining strategies and the use of strikes. The chapter argues that gender differences in conflict patterns and bargaining strategies exist both among and within different industries. The collective agreement emerged in an unregulated field of law. Relations between the bargaining parties, as well as disputes over the content and application of collective agreements were solved via self-regulation. The rights of association and of negotiation are main components in the Swedish industrial relations system. The women’s organizations disappeared from the labour market in the heydays of the Swedish model and the solidaristic wage policy, but the different strategies between men and women remained. The new strategy is not only a result of a transformation of the collective bargaining system. The shift was also facilitated by some general changes in the labour market legislation.
