Work attendance, gender and marital status: absenteeism among Swedish tobacco workers, 1919-59

"This paper presents evidence on rates of absenteeism for men and women employed in the Swedish tobacco industry from 1919 to 1959. The tobacco workers were employed by a public-private monopoly that undertook considerable rationalizations of production while at the same time having to live up to social constraints. The managers of the Tobacco Monopoly became increasingly interested in monitoring work attendance and sick leave. Throughout the period of investigation, and in contrast to the situation two decades earlier, women had about two times higher rates of absenteeism and sick days than men. The number of hours lost due to sickness and other causes showed an upward trend, with a particular peak for women during World War II, probably as a consequence of increased work intensity. The findings are in line with previous studies from other countries but are in some contrast with aggregate Swedish data for factory workers, according to which the female-male gap in sick leave was small or non-existant before the 1940s."