The project aimed at promoting new knowledge that contribute to the enhancement of gender equality among caregivers in the aging sector. The project has developed a broader network through two workshops, and conducted a small-scale study. The participants has contributed to the gathering of existing knowledge on women as caregivers in elderly service sector suffering from inequality and social injustices from diverse perspectives;

•  how women’s career path as care service providers and the value of the job are apparently inconsistent;
• how low salary and early retirement  interact with each other, and provide an unequal situation for women caregivers at the end of their career, which apparently affect their socio-economic status;
• how policies prevailed in labor market interplay in Nordic welfare model when other job sectors are compared?

The project has developed a common understanding, and a methodology to address the issues presented above, identify concrete gaps, and specific socio-cultural challenges in given contexts. The results of the workshops has been used to produce a short report.

This project researched Nordic models of fatherhood and gender equality as hotbeds of welfare innovation and explores to what extent some countries are trying to ‘import’ similar models. Specifically, the project focused on countries that had attempted to follow Nordic models of parental leave with father quotas namely Germany, Japan and Slovenia.

The project compiled research on motivators, forces (actors) and outcomes (take-up) of father quotas in Iceland, Norway and Sweden and investigate to what extent, if any these dimensions are transformed when applied elsewhere. The obvious example was how gender equality motivations might be exchanged for fertility concerns outside Nordic countries. The project initiated a framing of how policies are spread between countries, in particular how Nordic parental leave policies are perceived and used as examples elsewhere.

The project resulted in an article The Nordic Model of Father Quotas in Leave Policies: A Case of Policy Transfer? published in Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 2021

The primary purpose of the project was to develop a network to promote dialogue on gender-specific structural inequality in the reindeer herder communities. The participants contributed to the gathering of existing knowledge on the current situation of Sámi women in reindeer herding communities, in order to develop an understanding of the variation of roles of men and women in the communities. The project identified concerns and challenges that exist within the reindeer herding communities, related to gender inequality. The promotion of knowledge is aimed at developing recommendations for possible concrete actions in order to promote gender equality in the reindeer herder Sámi communities and in the Sámi community as a whole.

The overarching questions this project highlighted include: how structural inequality is perceived amongst Sámi reindeer herding communities, in particular of the Sámi inhabiting regions of the three Nordic countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden); what kind of gender-specific effects structural inequality may have in reindeer herding activities; how does structural inequality hinder, or negatively influence, the equal access to herding as livelihood practices for women; and how such practices provide implications for the enjoyment of human rights for the Sámi women.

The project resulted in a tool kit and a book Indigenous Peoples and Gender Equality with Special Reference to Sámi Reindeer Herding.

The project brought together a diverse set of stakeholders in three Nordic countries to participate in an exploratory co-creative workshop combining three interrelated topics: T1 Gender-influenced educational choices by young people, T2 Problems due to norms of masculinity in leadership, T3 Gendered organizational norms.

After a initial period of methodology development between the three partner teams, three workshops will took place in succession in three Nordic locations, namely Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen. The workshops included business and academic leaders, educators, managers, students, volunteers, NGOs, educational institutions, and youth/student organisations, allowing them to discuss the topics in one shared forum as well as co-create solutions to these issues. Using the workshops as data, the research team analysed the insights to synthesize outcomes, i.e. policy and action strategies, and methods for addressing such organizational challenges in a Nordic context.

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This collaborative project between two gender equality centres and two universities looked at the underrepresentation of men in nursing in the Nordic countries. Men make up only 2 % of nurses in Iceland, 3,5 % in Denmark, and 9 % in Norway 2018. To advance gender equality in work life, it is important to increase the number of men in caring professions.

The project partners mapped institutional practices and interview faculty, administration, and students at selected nursing programs in Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. Based on the findings, we developed recommendations for recruiting and retaining men in nursing education. The results were shared in a report and journal article in 2018.

The uneven distribution of women’s and men’s paid and unpaid work is one explanation for inequality in working life, and in society at large. Parental insurance is crucial to women’s wage levels, but as long as women take a greater responsibility for children, equality in the working life cannot be achieved.

This project researches the systems for parental insurance in the Nordic countries to see how they affect women’s work and men’s withdrawal of parental benefit. The results are compiled in a report where suggestions were given on how the systems can be improved to increase equality. The results were presented to Nordic decision makers at a launch in Stockholm and disseminated through campaign work in Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

The project wants to influence decision-makers in the Nordic countries to drive the development forward in terms of equal parenting, and to help achieve the goals of equal opportunities for care, power and influence for women and men in the Nordic countries.

The Nordic countries are often held as European front-runners in the area of gender equality. At the same time, gender equality policy is becoming more and more internationalised. The legislation in the Nordic countries is increasingly affected by European and international regulations, such as the Beijing Platform and the Amsterdam Treaty. At the European level, national policy is influenced by EU laws and decisions. This project explored to what extent the Nordic countries have served as exporters of gender equality policy since the 1990s, as well as how much they have had to adapt to international decisions in the same period.

During 2015 and 2016, networking meetings were held and the project participated in a seminar on EU gender equality policy.

The issues were discussed during a Nordic conference on 20-21 June 2017 in Oslo.

The Nordic gender equality model has been widely acknowledged in recent decades, also outside the Nordic region. Gender equality is the ultimate goal in all Nordic countries, yet the path to get there varies.

The Nordequal project aimed to create a network for gender equality studies in a Nordic comparative perspective. Researchers and scholars from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland participated in the network. The purpose of the initiative was to create a platform for long-term sharing of experiences among researchers, practitioners and politicians at the Nordic level. The goal was to arrange four seminars in 2014 and 2015 where challenges and opportunities in contemporary Nordic gender equality practice and policy would be discussed. The seminar series was centred around the increasing complexity in Nordic gender equality policy, for example in relation to the tensions between state feminism and a more business- and market-oriented type of feminism. Two concluding seminars were held in 2016.

The interest in feminism and gender equality is rising across the Nordic region. The Nordic Forum in Malmö 2014 attracted 30 000 guests from all Nordic countries. However, there is still a need for more knowledge about gender equality and the national and international commitments that the Nordic countries have made for gender equality. The project A Gender Equal Nordic Region aimed to take advantage of the engagement and knowledge that the Nordic Forum resulted in, with the target group consisting of adolescents in upper secondary school.

Educational material including a teacher’s guide was developed within the project. The material was based on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, the conclusions from the Nordic Forum and other information and facts about gender equality. The material was initially introduced in ten upper secondary schools in Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, but was eventually distributed to all 1 124 upper secondary schools in Sweden, 33 in Iceland and 150 in Denmark. A launch conference was held in Reykjavik. The work to further disseminate the material in the Nordic countries has continued after the project period.