Sammendrag

Denne artikkelen tar utgangspunkt i at samfunnsstatistikken ikke kan sees som en nøytral avbildning av et lands befolkning, men som en komplisert kunnskapsproduserende praksis. Statistikernes vanskeligheter med å kategorisere informasjonen om husarbeid og kvinners arbeid blir brukt til å problematisere brytninger mellom et familie- og et individprinsipp i befolkningsstatistikken. Roll-Hansen argumenterer for at et kjønnet familieprinsipp la viktige premisser for statistikkens bilde av befolkningen, samtidig som den individorienterte markedstenkningen ble stadig mer dominerende for samfunnsforståelsen.

English abstract

Gender, statistics and politics Housework and the occupied population in the Norwegian census (1920–1940)

This article deals with the development of the Norwegian census in the inter-war period, with respect to how the statistical system collected and processed information concerning married women and their work. In the 1920s and 30s the census formed an important part of the social infrastructure, providing essential information for political planning and government. The compilation, processing and presentation of demographic facts should not be considered as a neutral process, but as a complex practice of producing social knowledge. A main contention of the article is that a family principle was used to structure the tables of population statistics and that the influence of this principle increased throughout the period. This result challenges a common assumption in the history of statistics, that by the beginning of the 20th century the national censuses were structured according to a principle of the individual. The proposed «gendered logic» of population statistics is discussed in connection with several important political issues in the fields of welfare and gender politics.

Keywords: housework, census, gender, occupied population, family principle, principle of the individual, welfare state