Women's Work in Contemporary Society. Notes toward a Definition of a Service-Oriented Culture
Women's Work in Contemporary Society. Notes toward a Definition of a Service-Oriented Culture

Summary/Abstract: Women’s research in recent years has contributed to developing different frames of analysis and innovative approaches – compared to conventional views in the social sciences – on such issues as women’s work, the welfare state, the service society. I feel it is important to convey the descriptive accuracy of these analyses, to stress the importance of dealing with details of everyday life, to develop an adequate understanding of what women’s position is in contemporary society. None of these is to be taken for granted, and accordingly, what I set out to do in the first section of this paper is to portray aspects of everyday life in the welfare-service society from a women’s perspective. I then move to revisit two crucial areas of research and literature and two crucial concepts: work and the welfare-service society. In the concluding part of this paper it is my purpose to suggest that by using theoretical redefinitions as well as empirical findings, such as are put forward in the present discussion, one can raise issues concerning present and future trends of what I call a “serviceoriented culture”: not exclusively “women’s issues”, but indeed an insightful perspective for understanding questions of everyday life in an increasingly complex society.

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