Inequality in health and the class position of women ‐ the Norwegian experience

Abstract The paper examines whether different ways of classifying women in the socioeconomic hierarchy make a difference with regard to health. Among sociologists there has been much dispute on how to classify women in the class structure. The insights from this debate, however, have attracted negligible attention in contemporary research on social inequalities in health. Four ways of classifying women are identified and operationalized: the conventional, the individual the cross‐class, and the pre‐war generational approach. Using a nation‐wide representative data set, their associations with a dichotomous measure of self‐reported health are investigated. Logistic regression analyses show that only one approach yields significant results (p<0.05): the conventional. In this model, health is inversely associated with socioeconomic status. Possible interpretations of these results are discussed. The findings imply that the conclusions drawn in Norwegian studies of social inequalities in health and in use of health services must be questioned and should be reconsidered.