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Equal health is targeted as an important goal of the public health policy in Sweden, but sick leave is largely unequal with a higher proportion of women than men among the sick-listed. This difference has existed since the mid-1980s when women in Sweden took the step into the paid labor market, mainly in the public sector. The gender-segregated labor market was a fact. Epidemiological research from the 1990s investigated, based on Rosabeth Moss Kanter's theory, the association between being a minority in a profession and sickness absence. Several studies found such an association. However, later research could not repeat the findings. It did not seem as if the minority situation was a risk situation. Rather, an analysis of Norwegian registry data found a healthy selection of women with low sick leave to occupations that were extremely male-dominated. Recent research has shifted the focus from the minority situation to identifying gender-based selection for different occupations as the cause of gender differences in sick leave. Women more often than men choose occupations characterized by a work environment that increases the risk of mental and stress-related conditions. Reducing gender segregation in the labor market could contribute to reduced gender inequality. Even more important would be to change both the organizational and psychosocial work environment in women-dominated professions in order to avoid that women and men working in these areas suffer from work-related ill-health and sick leave.

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