Erik Grønseth (13 September 1925 – 8 October 2005) was a Norwegian sociologist, Professor of Sociology at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

from 1971 to 1989, and "one of the post-war pioneers of sociology" in Norway. He is regarded as one of the founders of

men's studies Men's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning men, masculinity, gender, culture, politics and sexuality. It academically examines what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Origins Sociologists and ...

. Together with

Harriet Holter Harriet Holter (11 April 1922 – 18 December 1997) was a Norwegian social psychologist. Career She graduated with the cand.oecon. degree in 1946, and was eventually hired as a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Social Research, ...

, he is also considered the founder of Norwegian family sociology. As a young man, he was introduced to

Arne Næss Arne Dekke Eide Næss (; 27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term " deep ecology", an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the environmental movement of the late twentieth centur ...

, who encouraged him to study sociology. Following his studies at

Wittenberg College Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ...

, the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and the

, he graduated with a master's degree in sociology at the University of Wisconsin in 1949 and a mag.art (PhD) degree in sociology at the University of Oslo in 1952. From 1952 to 1963, he was a researcher at the

Norwegian Institute for Social Research The Norwegian Institute for Social Research ( no, Institutt for samfunnsforskning, ISF) is a private social science research institute based in Oslo, Norway. It was founded in 1950 by Vilhelm Aubert, Arne Næss, Eirik Rinde, and Stein Rokkan. It ...

. He was then appointed as lecturer in sociology at the

. He was appointed as professor of sociology in 1971. He took an interest in family research already in the 1950s, and has published several books on family, gender roles, work, sexuality and society. In cooperation with developmental psychologist Per Olav Tiller he conducted a seminal study on

father absence Father absence occurs when parents separate and the father no longer lives with his children. Parental separation has been proven to affect a child's development and behaviour. Early parental divorce (during primary school) has been associated wit ...

in sailor families and its impact on children's

personality development Personality development encompasses the dynamic construction and deconstruction of integrative characteristics that distinguish an individual in terms of interpersonal behavioral traits. Personality development is ever-changing and subject to cont ...

during the 1950s and 1960s; the study was the first study on men in the Nordic countries. He continued his research on men, work and families, and in the early 1970s, he carried out a study on couples who shared their jobs, a study that attracted much media interest in Norway and abroad. Grønseth's views on family and sexuality were considered "radical" in the 1960s; after an

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

interview in 1963, in which he advocated

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

, all the bishops of the state

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

as well as 129,000 housewives signed a protest petition against him. However, many of his views were embraced by the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

movement of the 1970s and today his once controversial views are considered mainstream in Norwegian politics.

References

Norwegian sociologists Academic staff of the University of Oslo University of Oslo alumni The New School alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni 1925 births 2005 deaths Family sociologists {{Norway-academic-bio-stub