In this article we discuss vocational education in Sweden against the backdrop of the changing nature of industrial relations in the period from ca 1910 to 1975. Drawing upon evidence from official inquiries and case studies of two industries (forest industry and shipbuilding), we show that Sweden in the 1940s and 1950s can be described as a collective skill formation system in the making, where firms, intermediary associations, and the state cooperated around vocational education and training. However, Sweden developed in a very different direction than similar countries. We argue that this remarkable change of trajectory cannot be understood without considering the simultaneous disintegration of the model of industrial relations, along with general changes in the system of education.
This article examines the economic consequences of widowhood and the possibility of maintaining female-managed farms in a predominantly male world. A unique dataset is exploited to investigate the productivity of female-headed households in preindustrial Sweden. The main source material is tithe payment rolls maintained by parish priests, which reflect fluctuations and long-term trends in the annual economic output of more than 2,000 individual farms. No evidence was found that farm management conducted by widows was dissolved by male relatives or neighbours. Farm management by widows was in many cases a temporary arrangement, especially on manorial land, where landlords did not accept female farmers. But among freeholders and crown tenants, widows often refrained from remarriage and continued as farm heads. As for production, farms managed by widows performed slightly better than farms managed by men during the first few years after a takeover. This result levelled out over time and farms managed by long-term widows show production results almost equal to farms run by men.
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