YOUNG-WOMEN IN A MALE PERIPHERY - EXPERIENCES FROM THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH

This paper deals with the migration of young women from rural areas in northern Scandinavia. The way from adolescence to adulthood is discus sed and the notion of a male periphery is presented. An attempt is mad e to shift focus in studies of rural youth migration. The emphasis her e is on the socially constructed space that the young women leave. Is one reason behind the rural migration pattern to be found in the male periphery? The periphery is dominated by male economic and leisure act ivities. Women in the rural areas are less visible, and their activiti es are not as valued as the male activities. Young men tend to follow in the footstep of their fathers, while young rural women break with t he mothers on their life paths. There are few modern role models for t he daughters in the periphery. A study of young women and men in Troms county in northern Norway is used to illustrate the women's paths fro m adolescence to adult life. Young women in rural Troms do, to a much larger extent than the young rural men, take higher education. They ha ve ambitions of highly qualified jobs, either in towns or in their hom e localities. The young rural women break new ground by continuing in higher education. The young men run the risk of being left behind as l osers. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.