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

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

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 ...

. Together with Harriet Holter, he is also considered the founder of Norwegian family sociology. As a young man, he was introduced to Arne Næss, who encouraged him to study sociology. Following his studies at Wittenberg College, the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

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 Institute for Social Research (, ISF) is an independent social science research institute based in Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipalit ...

. 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 in sailor families and its impact on children's personality development 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 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 human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...

, all the bishops of the state

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

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 ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gronseth, Erik 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