The Power Plays project seeked to break the silencing of sexual harassment in workplaces of care, by promoting workplace cultures prone to actively prevent and deal with sexual harassment.

First, the Power Plays project developed a typology of existing sexual harassment prevention tools accompanied by guidelines for how to choose the right prevention strategy. Second, based on memory workshop interventions in workplaces of care across Denmark, Sweden and Finland, the Power Plays project contributed nuanced narrative cases of work-based experiences of sexual harassment. Third, grounded in these narratives, the Power Plays project developed authentic ‘Sexual harassment plays’ included in a forum theater prevention tool that can facilitate a safe, bodily and dialogical way of promoting safe workplace cultures and anti-sexual harassment literacy.

The Power Plays toolbox was tested in a variety of workplaces of care and disseminated through an independent website as well as through major care workers’ associations across the Nordic region.

The Power Plays toolbox was completed in April 2023. Read more about and get access to the toolbox here: Power Plays – preventing sexual harassment in workplace of care — Jämställd Utveckling Skåne (jamstalldutveckling.se)

This interdisciplinary project took an intersectional approach to address concerns about the lack of prevention and intervention strategies within the tourism and hospitality sectors in the Nordic countries. The project utilised practice-based research activities in collaboration with working life actors in Iceland, Norway and Sweden to try and answer three research questions:

• How have working life actors worked on prevention of sexual harassment in tourism and hospitality workplaces

• What are definitions of sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality sector across different Nordic contexts

• How can understanding past/current trans-Nordic approaches to sexual harassment provide opportunities that lead to active prevention strategies for sexual harassment in tourism and hospitality workspaces? 

Through close examination of industry documents (reports, policies, campaign and marketing materials) and collaborative workshops with working life actors, this project aimed to provided the Nordic tourism and hospitality sector with relevant, current knowledge that aims to inform future industry preventative and interventional activities.

Responding to the call for prevention efforts being more aware of “intersecting stigmatized identities” which make some employees more vulnerable to sexual harassment than others, the SUSH project was positioned in the ethical infrastructure tradition and targets bystanders, whose actions may affect sexual harassment situations positively or negatively.

The main aim of the SUSH project was to develop and test the effects of theory- and research-based bystander sexual harassment interventions in close partnership with working life actors across three Nordic settings (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). An expected effect of the interventions was increased awareness of the negative consequences of passive or colluding bystander behaviour and of risk situations for sexual harassment. A long-term outcome of the SUSH-methodology in continuing projects, will be to provide empirically tested sexual harassment interventions to be used by workplaces in Nordic countries.

The background to the project was the need for closer Nordic co-operation between organisations working for LGBTI rights. Although the organisation and situation in the countries are somewhat different, we all experience that the LGBTI population has poorer living conditions and greater challenges than the majority population, and that trends in the world and Europe mean that we must continue to work for equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender and sexuality. ILGA Europe’s rainbow map shows stagnation and decline. The largest LGBTI organisations in the Nordic region therefore joined forces to organise a conference that brought together staff and activists from across the Nordic region in Oslo on the weekend of 20-22 May 2022.

A total of 100 queer activists and staff from queer organisations gathered in Oslo to discuss and learn about a range of topics that affect queer lives. Participants represented Finland, Åland, Sweden, Sápmi, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

The conference was followed up with a two-hour webinar on 12 December on the topic of the living conditions of queer seniors in a life course perspective in the Nordic countries, hosted by the Norwegian-Swedish research duo Janne Bromseth and Anna Siverskog. There were 30 participants from Finland, Åland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

The conference also saw the establishment of a Nordic LGBTI council consisting of small and large LGBTI organisations in the Nordic Region. SETA, Samtökin ’78, RFSL, LGBT+ Denmark and FRI had the main responsibility for the conference and invited organisations from their respective countries and autonomous regions.

The formalisation of a Nordic LGBTI council and network will enable the exchange of experience and knowledge on how best to strengthen efforts on a more permanent basis.

Through the project, a network gathering for experience exchange and organizational development among queers in Sápmi was organised. The goal was to strengthen the queer Sami organization and, in that way, creating more and better meeting places for the whole of Sápmi. In the long run, more meeting places and a stronger queer Sami organization will contribute to more openness and knowledge, both among queer Sami, but also among the general population. 

The network gathering gathered participants from the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian sides, and had two main purposes: 

• To gather and exchange experiences among queer communities across Sápmi, and talk about the way forward for the queer Sámi organization, as well as to plan future meeting places 
• Organizational development through getting to know the organizational processes from the various parts of Sápmi and skills development in practical-organizational work 

Following standardized methods for questionnaire development, this project developed and validated a questionnaire to assess sexual harassment in a standardized manner, across the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The Danish questionnaire Inventory of Workplace Sexual Harassment (IWS) was translated into Norwegian and Swedish. Using these Norwegian and Swedish versions of the questionnaire, survey data from employees in Norway and Sweden were collected. In combination with Danish data, this pooled dataset containing survey data from the three included countries was used to evaluate the questionnaire psychometrically and to identify a core of items that measure sexual harassment similarly across the included countries.

This Nordic questionnaire (IWS-Nordic) provides an essential tool for comparative research on sexual harassment between the countries and for workplaces to initiate and monitor preventive action.

This project aimed to carry out a critical analysis of how Nordic ideals regarding management and organisation impact the work environment of employees within service and retail. The project had a particular focus on ideals concerning customer orientation, often perceived as “natural” and self-evident to Nordic service organisational practice. The project analysed the consequences of prioritising the customer, for example how this leads to problematic power relationships between customer and employee.

The project has developed knowledge about if a customer-focused organisation can generate an unequal work environment, by upholding power and gender structures. And if these structures in turn provide an arena for violence and sexual harassment of service and retail employees. 

The project mapped and evaluated the pension systems in the Nordic countries, to see how they impact gender equality. The results were collated in a report, together with suggestions for improvement. The report was presented at a Nordic summit meeting on equal pensions and disseminated to relevant Nordic target groups in several ways. Parallel to the project, an information campaign was carried out, aimed at young people in the Nordic countries. The campaign highlighted how life choices affect a future pension.

The project seeked to increase knowledge about how the design of pension systems in the Nordic countries affect economic equality between women and men. This knowledge is vital in making future pension reforms fair and sustainable. It will also reinforce the trust in the mutually financed welfare systems of the Nordic countries.

The project created opportunities for exchange of experience between women’s organisations and decision makers in the Nordic countries, which furthers the Nordic collaboration as well as the organisation of the Nordic women’s movement.

Through the Safe schools project, the organisations Likestillingssenteret KUN (NO), Ekvalita (FI), and Elevernas Riksförbund (SE) have developed a joint Nordic method based on norm criticism to create an inclusive and equal school with a focus on increased student participation in the “Safe School” project.

This has been done through five different work packages involving visits and workshops with student councils, principals and student representatives at upper secondary schools in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Åland. Together with student councils and student representatives, the project has tested and further developed methods that can be used to strengthen student participation and the relevance and influence of student councils.

Trygga skolan has worked to increase safety at school and to promote a greater diversity of voices in student council work and the prevention of exclusion, bullying and harassment. The results of the project have now been compiled in a methodology book and on a website focusing on norm-critical work in schools.