The knowledge review shows that many of the obstacles that trans people face in and around working life are based on restrictive norms, which are reflected in recruitment processes, work environments and opportunities for career development. Violating these rigid notions of gender often entails some form of punishment from the surrounding society, whether it is being eliminated from a recruitment process, being discriminated against or mistreated by colleagues and customers or being treated unprofessionally by a manager. Susanna Young Håkansson is an analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, where NIKK is located, and has written the knowledge review.

Various types of exclusionary processes, such as discrimination and transphobic environments, are common obstacles to a secure and fulfilling working life. This applies both to the search for a job and to the working environment in a workplace. These barriers can have serious consequences for trans people’s finances, quality of life and health. 

Susanna Young Håkansson, analyst

The findings from several of the reports show that the nature of an individual’s gender identity affects their experiences in the labour market. For example, trans women face more harassment and discrimination than trans men, both in the workplace and in recruitment processes. Age is another important factor – young trans people are often particularly vulnerable, and there is evidence that many trans people have a difficult start in the labour market. 

With the exception of one report, economic vulnerability is not explicitly addressed in the included material. However, based on what we learn about the overrepresentation of trans people in terms of unemployment, exposure to discrimination, including in recruitment, illnesses that affect an individual’s ability to work and poor employment conditions, such as insecure employment and low wages, the results of this knowledge review indicate that people in the trans group are more likely than those in the majority population to have difficulty earning a living and be at risk of or living in poverty and economic vulnerability. This is an example of areas where more Nordic knowledge is needed. 

Susanna Young Håkansson

European data shows that many trans people in the Nordic countries have difficulty coping financially and a significant proportion have experienced severe economic vulnerability. In the Nordic material, however, questions about working life conditions and finances are not linked to consequences in areas such as health, housing and other conditions for living a safe and decent life.  These are areas where more Nordic knowledge is needed.

The knowledge review was developed from literature on the working life conditions for trans people produced in the Nordic countries, as well as dialogues conducted with civil society organisations and labour market actors. Interviews have been conducted with representatives of civil society organisations in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland to get a picture of the situations there. 

During the years 2020-2022, NIKK has produced reports on topics such as the labor market and gendered study choices as well as sustainable development. NIKK has now gathered parts of the results from the reports in a publication that highlights how issues of gendered educational choices and gender-segregated labor market, norms on skills and distribution of care work are related to the transition to green jobs. Among other things, it shows how relevant issues can be drawn from several different areas of society, and that a gender perspective is required for the green transition to be sustainable.  

“Climate policies tend to create more jobs in the field of technology, while at the same time increasing the workload of households. If you want to make job investments for the climate and at the same time break the gender-segregated labor market, you need to challenge the norms and values that affect the development of society”, says Jimmy Sand, analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research. 

The publication highlights and discusses the challenges of the green transition based on five thematic approaches: Talent management and education systems, interventions to break down gender segregation, gender labelling of technology and of sustainability, academic norms and workplace culture and social sustainability, welfare systems and the significance of place. The results are also summarized in twenty key messages. 

Gender perspective on green jobs in printable PDF

“Sexual harassment is a major problem for society in the Nordic countries and more research is needed on prevention and on understandings of sexual violence and harassment. This book shows that the Nordic region is complex and that the idea of some countries have made so much progress, or are even finished with the work for gender equality, can stand in the way of actual change”, says Maja Lundqvist, analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at the University of Gothenburg. 

Together with Kajsa Widegren, PhD in gender studies, and Angelica Simonsson, PhD in education, analysts at the Secretariat for Gender Research, she is co-editor of the upcoming anthology Re-imagining Sexual Harassment – Perspectives from the Nordic Region. The book will be published on 18 April by Policy Press, an imprint of Bristol University Press. Researchers and writers from across the Nordic region have contributed with different perspectives, including workplace violence, sexual harassment in academia, and the challenges and opportunities of the legal system. Academic text is alternated with more fictional contributions. 

“We primarily invited researchers active in the Nordic region, who we felt could give new perspectives and theoretical approaches. But it was also important for us to have contributions from people outside academia, in order to nuance the picture of knowledge about vulnerability. There are experiences and embodied knowledge of vulnerability and resistance that non-academic writing can access in a better way”, says Maja Lundqvist.  

While working on this anthology, we also deepened ideas and perspectives that have emerged in the organization after working with sexual harassment since Metoo.

Fredrik Bondestam

The book has been produced in co-operation between NIKK and the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research.

“We see a need for a boost in knowledge about sexual harassment in the Nordic labour market. While working on this anthology, we also deepened ideas and perspectives that have emerged in the organization after working with sexual harassment since Metoo”, says Fredrik Bondestam, PhD in education and director of the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research. 

The Metoo movement in the fall of 2017 sparked much debate and created a demand for more knowledge on sexual harassment. In response, NIKK has in recent years produced and compiled several Nordic knowledge and policy reviews on sexual harassment, and also administered a Nordic research initiative on sexual harassment in the labor market. The Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research has produced research reviews, participated in expert groups and collaborated in research projects on gender-based violence and sexual harassment in Sweden, in the Nordic countries and internationally. This long-term work has highlighted the extent and complexity of the problem.  

“The knowledge gaps we have identified have raised both curiosity and frustration, in relation to research, knowledge and policy development and how sexual harassment should be managed and prevented. We hope that this book can be important in the conversation about sexual harassment. It adds nuance and broadens the understanding of what sexual harassment and violence are and its consequences for people living in the Nordic region”, says Maja Lundqvist.   

Both the labour markets and the education systems in the Nordic countries are highly gender-segregated. This gender segregation has consequences for study and working conditions, pay, and the distribution of power and resources. The gender segregation is particularly apparent in vocational education and training (VET), which is the focus of the report Vocational education and training in the Nordic countries – Knowledge and interventions to combat gender segregation, produced by NIKK.

Angelica Simonsson, PhD in Education and author of the report, presents the findings of the report and gives suggestions on how to combat gender segregation in VET and associated sectors of the labour market. You will also have the chance to ask questions at the webinar. NIKK organises the webinar in collaboration with NIVA , the Nordic Institute for Advanced Training in Occupational Health. The webinar is free of charge and open for everyone.

Date and time: September 13, 10.00-11.00 (CET).
Language: The webinar will be held in English.

Register here

Labour markets and the world of work are facing a variety of challenges, including challenges emanating from technological change, demographic shifts, and regional differences. This is happening at the same time as views on knowledge, learning and education, and the logics of governance are changing or have changed. NIKK’s new publication Towards a sustainable future world of work in the Nordic countries – The gender perspective on the opportunities and challenges describes these changes and focuses on three of the challenges:  

• Lifelong learning: being schooled in readiness to change  
• The significance of place: teleworking and work on site  
• Forms of employment and working conditions: the gig economy and entrepreneurship as examples. 

 
By identifying the challenges from a gender perspective, it becomes possible to problematize assumptions about technology-driven social development that have a bearing on the world of work and the supply of skills. They are also positioned in relation to policy goals for sustainable economic, social and environmental development.   

“Gender analyses indicate that prevailing norms and social structures assign women and men different roles, opportunities and responsibilities – and that these norms and social structures are limiting our opportunities to transition to a sustainable society,” says Fredrik Bondestam, Director of the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research where NIKK is located. 

The publication takes up examples where the different aspects of sustainability are somewhat at odds with each other. Economic interests and thus economic sustainability are often given priority over social and environmental sustainability. The examples also show how such unequal priorities reproduce inequalities based on gender, class, age and ethnicity. Intersectional analyses of how different systems of power interact are important to understanding gender and sustainability. 

“There are many opportunities to make the world of work in the future more sustainable, but for this to happen, power relationships must be taken into account. Because they do not automatically change as a result of technological or economic changes. They just find new, different, or additional expressions than previously,” says Fredrik Bondestam. 

Focus on changes in the workplace and education  

Why is the rise in teleworking increasing inequalities? Could it possibly get rural areas in the Nordic region to flourish? Who are the people working in the growing gig economy, where gigs are allocated via digital platforms, and what are the conditions like in this economy? What roles do sex and gender play in education when the role of education is strongly tied to the labour market’s need for employable labour? The three challenges highlighted in this publication in various ways show how the workplace, and education and training systems related to the workplace, have changed in a variety of different ways. These changes are due to technological development, deregulation and different governance logics. 

“New ways of organising work and the demand for a more flexible workforce also challenge previous norms that work is attached to a fixed place and is something where there is a clear employer responsibility. The examples in the publication illustrate how this can manifest itself. Highlighting these changes from a gender perspective is absolutely key to achieving sustainable development,” says Fredrik Bondestam.  

For each of the three challenges, the publication presents a number of central messages as takeaways for future discussions on possible ways forward. These discussions are essential for achieving the 2030 Agenda goals, and for creating a sustainable world of work where nobody is left behind.   

As a Nordic Council of Ministers cooperation body, NIKK – Nordic Information on Gender – contributes to realising the Council’s Vision 2030. NIKK’s areas of activity all deal with one or other of the major challenges of our time, and are based on the global sustainable development goals. By highlighting the gender perspective on pressing issues, NIKK strives to make a contribution to sustainable solutions for social development in the Nordic countries. 

Women and men are found in different courses and study programmes and sectors of the labour market, and also end up in different positions in the hierarchies of both the education systems and working life. This gender segregation has consequences for study and working conditions, pay, and the distribution of power and resources. VET programmes involve many practices where sex and gender have significance, and where gender segregation is particularly apparent. 

Tasked by the Nordic Council of Ministers, NIKK has produced the report “Vocational education and training in the Nordic countries – Knowledge and interventions to combat gender segregation”. The report describes the current state of knowledge and the education systems in the Nordic countries. It also provides examples of existing interventions aiming to break patterns of gender segregation in VET programmes in the Nordic countries. The final part of the report analyses each of its parts and presents recommendations and overall reflections on what needs to be taken into account in future work for change.  

Few interventions focus on gender coding 

In the Nordic countries, interventions to reduce gender imbalances in working life and education are largely implemented as part of overall policy strategies. Some interventions target specific sectors. The report shows that many of these interventions to counter gender segregation aim to encourage the under-represented sex to choose differently. However, few of them focus on the gender coding that exists and is reproduced in VET programmes and in the workplaces associated with them.  

“Gender coding is closely tied to how work is valued. Traditions, tasks and cultures in these occupations and in VET are associated with masculinity or femininity. This does not automatically change when the proportion of women or men in a particular sector changes,” says Angelica Simonsson, PhD in education and senior analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, who wrote the report.  

Many similarities and differences in the Nordic countries’ education systems  

The education systems in the Nordic countries have many fundamental similarities, but also many differences, especially when it comes to the way in which VET programmes are organised. All these education systems have in common that they have always had the fundamental idea that social disparities can be addressed through education. Common to all the Nordic countries is that they have a universal education system where all pupils attend compulsory school together. When pupils are roughly 15-16 years old, they transition to upper secondary school. There, they can choose between a stream that leads to university studies or a VET stream, or a combination of both. One of the major differences between the countries is how strong the divide is between these two streams, and being able to study for entry to university studies for those who choose a VET programme.  

“This is linked in part to the countries’ different ways of dealing with the issue of social inclusion and equity,” continues Angelica Simonsson.  

One of the most striking similarities in VET in the Nordic countries is the numbers of boys and girls studying in different VET areas. The report presents statistics which show great similarities in the areas where boys dominate and where girls dominate, and that boys generally exhibit a greater dominance. At the same time, the subject areas involve different things in the different countries and are therefore not entirely comparable. Overall however, it can be said that there is an almost total dominance of boys in the energy, industry, building and construction sectors. Girls instead dominate in the area of health and social care. In sectors such as service and administration, there is a greater gender balance. 

A more comprehensive focus on norms is needed  

There are several explanatory models for why gender segregation in VET occurs. What is clear is that sex, gender, VET and work are interlinked. The explanations form a complex fabric in which the individual level and societal level interact; in which policy, governance and labour market forces interact; and in which the individual’s choices are constrained and curtailed both directly and indirectly. A focus on individuals alone within the under-represented group in a particular sector appears to be a poor solution to the problem. 

“Instead, a more comprehensive and distributed focus on norms and attitudes is needed, targeting actors and practices at a number of levels in the labour market and in these countries’ education systems,” says Angelica Simonsson.  

An accessible version of the publication(in English) can be found here.

On assignment from the Nordic Council of Ministers, NIKK has produced the report Genusperspektiv på framtidens högteknologiska arbetsliv – En nordisk forskningsöversikt om utbildningsval inom STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) [Gender perspective on the high-tech labour market of the future – A Nordic research overview on education choices within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)]”. The report provides an overall picture of what the research says, and make an inventory and analysis of initiatives in the STEM sector in the Nordic countries. An international outlook gives examples of how countries outside the Nordic countries are handling skewed recruitment to the STEM area.

“The picture is clear. Globally as well as in the Nordic countries, these initiatives generally aim in various ways to change girls and women rather than challenge gendered privilege, organisations or the gender norms surrounding science, technology, engineering, mathematics and other science subjects. This renders the structural barriers that exist invisible,” says Ulrika Jansson, who wrote the report together with Jimmy Sand.

Furthermore, in these initiatives, there is an assumption that women need to be inspired and supported through role models and mentoring.

“Most likely some of these initiatives do help girls and women to fit into courses and study programmes and professions dominated by men and a masculine subject area and occupational culture. But they are unlikely to challenge either established privilege or norms, nor to lead to radical change in mainstream activities and the organisation of work,” says Ulrika Jansson.

The need for a broader approach

The report shows that a much broader approach is needed. Looking at the situation from an organisation theory gender perspective, clear patterns emerge. Explanatory models for gendered study choices, gender-segregated labour markets and gender imbalance in the STEM area show very clearly that notions, assumptions and norms about gender, women and men, femininity and masculinity, set the framework and stipulate the terms for people’s scope for action. Heterosexuality is the norm and ethnicity or functional diversity is in principle not visible at all.

“Connections between men, masculinity and technical knowledge are created in everyday practices and are neither natural nor universal. These connections are made in a variety of ways, by different actors and in different contexts,” says Jimmy Sand.

In addition, there are norms in the education system, with gendered ideals of science, knowledge and science subjects that create limits for inclusive and sustainable education and a sustainable working life.

“All in all, these norms set the terms for both men’s and women’s study and career choices and in the labour market, at both the individual and structural levels. Terms where the outcome does not benefit women, but does benefit men,” says Jimmy Sand. For a sustainable and gender-equal working life in the future, it is important to ask other questions about skills and occupations as well, the report shows. How will the Nordic countries’ skills supply be guaranteed and what might this look like in order to increase gender equality? What types of skills do the Nordic countries need, apart from more engineers?

The research overview that is the central part of this report is based on a systematic review of 199 articles published in scholarly journals published during the period 2000–2019. Read the full report here.

Many health care workers report that they have been subjected to sexual harassment at work. The ongoing pandemic has also starkly highlighted shortcomings in the health care sector’s working conditions, which is already a vulnerable sector. The Nordic countries have similarities and differences in how this sector is organised as well as in the format and design of measures and initiatives undertaken. Nordic Information on Gender, NIKK, and the Nordic Institute for Advanced Training in Occupational Health, NIVA, invite you to the webinar Sexually harassed in health care – doubly vulnerable in a hard-hit sector on these highly topical issues.

Learn about the experience of the Icelandic health care sector, the Norwegian Nurses Federation and the newly appointed Swedish Equality Ombudsman, in conversation on the problem as well as important measures and solutions to it. Results from the new report Sexually harassed at work – An overview of the research in the Nordic countries will be presented and discussed from the different perspectives of the panel participants.

In autumn 2020, NIKK conducted a strategic programme call aimed at combating gender segregation in the labour market. The call was aimed at collaborations that wanted to develop and implement relevant solutions to problems in relation to the gender-segregated labour market. Two projects were granted funding and will work for change for up to four years:

Share the Care – Attracting men to nursing education to counteract a gender-segregated labour market.

The project will develop new knowledge to reduce gender segregation in the female-dominated health and care sector. During the four-year project period, the project will follow year groups in nursing education and document the reasons for drop-outs and delays in the programme and gather important knowledge on how to counteract the problems.

Efforts include educational materials and communication, as well as special platforms for male students to minimise the risks of exclusion. Study and career counselling groups will be set up for knowledge gathering and promotion of men in the health sector. The activities will provide educational institutions with valuable insights on how to recruit and retain men in nursing education. Read more about the project Share the Care.

New Nordic Model for greater equality in the Nordic media industry

The project will gather knowledge and highlight what hinders and promotes gender equality in the media industry. This is done in order to develop solutions that can lead to greater gender equality in the industry.

The three-year project will ensure that knowledge about formal and informal gender equality in the Nordic media industry is shared between the Nordic countries. The best experiences and solutions will be identified so that they can be put into practice in the different Nordic media companies. Experiences from the project will also form the basis for teaching and training courses. Read more about the project.