The future competitiveness of the Nordic region will largely depend on how well it manages to develop, utilise and renew its human capital. Productivity, innovation and adaptability depend on the right skills being available, talent being utilised where it is most needed and investments leading to the greatest possible value creation. This report starts from the premise that several of the mechanisms that influence these factors are also impacted by gender equality. Gender equality is therefore a key issue for the region’s economic efficiency and competitiveness. 

By highlighting these links, the Nordic Council of Ministers for Gender Equality and LGBTI aims to contribute new perspectives on how the competitiveness of the Nordic region can be strengthened, focusing on: 1) the importance of the digital transformation, 2) the green transition of industry and working life and 3) welfare and social care as social infrastructure. 

In the Nordic countries the living conditions of many LGBTI people are worse than those of the majority population. Trans people are a particularly vulnerable group who face various obstacles in life, not least working life. Prejudice and poor treatment affect recruitment processes, working environments and opportunities for career development. These conditions, characterised by significant barriers, can have serious consequences for trans people’s financial situation, quality of life and health. This publication summarises data on the working life conditions of trans people in the Nordic countries produced by the European Union Agency for Human Rights. The findings show that LGBTIQ people, and in particular trans and intersex people, continue to face hate-motivated violence, direct and indirect discrimination and other forms of victimisation, despite legal protections.

Trans People’s Working Life in Figures

Read the report online

Download and print the report in PDF

Within the framework of NIKK’s project Pay Equity in the Nordic Region, the report Paths to Equal Pay for Equal Work – An Exploratory Study of National Statistics in the Nordic Region has now been published. The report highlights what national statistics can be used to analyse pay differences between women and men in work of equal value at national level.  It is hoped that the report will make an important contribution to efforts to reduce the gender pay gap in the Nordic region.

Towards Pay Equity: An Exploratory Study of National Statistics in the Nordic Region

Read the report online

Download and print the publication in PDF

This publication summarises the main messages from a conference on working life conditions for trans people, held in Stockholm on 23 October 2024. The conference was based on the knowledge review ‘Trans People’s Working Life Conditions in the Nordic Region’, published in spring 2024 by NIKK. The knowledge review compiles results from previous Nordic studies and provides an overall picture that shows that trans people face particular obstacles in their working lives. Prejudice and poor treatment affect recruitment processes as well as work environments and opportunities for career development, which has concrete impacts, not least on transgender people’s finances.  
 
The conference shared knowledge and experiences from research, policy, government agencies, trade unions, employers and civil society organisations. 

A better working life for trans people

Read the publication online

Download and print the publication (PDF)

Today, women in the Nordics are among the most active labour market participants in the world, but the goal of equal conditions and pay equity in the labour market is far from being achieved. One of the clearest indicators of this are pay differentials between women and men. The Nordic Council of Ministers has therefore commissioned the publication of Pathways to Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value: Regulation, Reporting and Practice in the Nordic Region.

The report is written by the lawyer Eberhard Stüber. He has worked as, among other things, an analyst at the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman (JämO), and as a senior investigator at the Swedish Gender Equality Agency, both in Sweden.

The publication describes legislation and policy initiatives in the Nordic countries, including a discussion about the implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive with focus on the issue of pay equity. The report also provides a brief overview of Nordic labour market models and highlights differences for possibilities to advance work towards equal pay for equal work and work of equal value. Special attention is paid to the interaction between legislation, collective wage agreements and requirements for reporting wage statistics related to the ISCO standard.

This publication is the first in a series of reports from the project on pay equity in the Nordics. The second report in the series examines how available public statistics can be used to measure wage differences between women and men in equivalent work at national level in the Nordic countries, with in-depth study of Finland, Norway, and Denmark. The third report discusses various explanatory approaches regarding the undervaluation of women’s work in a gender-segregated labor market, based on a survey of the labor market partners and other key actors in the Nordic countries. The second and third reports will be published in the winter of 2024/2025.

Towards Pay Equity: Regulation, Reporting and Practice in the Nordic Region

Read the report online

Towards Pay Equity: Regulation, Reporting and Practice in the Nordic Region (PDF print version)

Trans people are a particularly vulnerable group and face various obstacles throughout their lives, not least in working life, where they experience worse conditions as a group than the majority population. Today, there is limited knowledge of the working life conditions for trans people and the underlying factors that affect their employment. The national studies that have been published have different areas of focus, but collectively they can provide a clearer picture of working life conditions for trans people in the Nordic countries.

This publication summarises the field of knowledge in the Nordic countries. By consolidating existing research, the publication helps to identify and, in some cases, fill knowledge gaps and thereby be of use to the Nordic countries. The knowledge review aims is to make trans people’s working life conditions visible to enable dialogue and identify needs and measures for improvement. 

Trans People’s Working Life Conditions in the Nordic Region

Read the report online

Trans People’s Working Life Conditions in the Nordic Region (PDF print version)

Sexual harassment and prevention in the Nordic workplace have been studied in a two-year Nordic research initiative. Several projects have developed new methods and tools in collaboration with labour market stakeholders, managers and employees. The results are now available in a new report.

The Nordic research funding initiative on sexual harassment at work 2021–2023 sought to initiate relevant research, cross-sectoral collaboration and shared knowledge building.

The research funding initiative was carried out in collaboration between the Nordic sectors for gender equality, culture and working life and the Nordic Committee for Children and Young People. 

The objective of the initiative was mainly to contribute towards new knowledge on sexual harassment at work in the Nordic countries with a focus on preventive measures and intervention methods. The findings were to contribute towards a good knowledge base for policy development and to cross-sectoral Nordic collaboration within the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work

Read the report online

Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work (PDF print version)

In the book Re-imagining Sexual Harassment – Perspectives from the Nordic Region, 19 writers contribute to a more nuanced and deeper understanding of issues such as violence in the workplace, sexual harassment in academia and the challenges and opportunities of the legal system. Academic text is alternated with literary contributions. 

Editors: Maja Lundqvist, Angelica Simonsson och Kajsa Widegren.

The book is available in bookstores and via the publisher Policy Press, an imprint of Bristol University Press, and OpenAcess.

(Open Access at Bristol University Press digital)

The Nordic Council of Ministers has adopted the vision that the Nordic region will be the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030. This knowledge review sheds light on a number of reports that use gender analyses to help understand the challenges of the green transition. It presents five thematic approaches to green jobs and concludes with a summary and key messages from these reports.

The purpose of this report is to identify links between issues related to gender-segregated educational choices and gender segregation in the labour market related to the transition to green jobs. The hope is that it will help to deepen the Nordic region’s perspectives on these issues and, by extension, contribute to sustainable solutions for social development in the Nordic countries. 

Gender perspective on green jobs in the Nordic region: A collection of results from NIKK 2020–2022

Read the report online

Gender perspective on green jobs in the Nordic region: A collection of results from NIKK 2020–2022 (PDF print version)

Nordic labour markets and the world of work are facing a variety of challeng­es, including challenges emanating from technological change, demo­graphic shifts and regional differences. How knowledge, learning and education, and the logics of governance are viewed have all changed. This knowledge base describes these changes and focuses on three challenges for a sustainable world of work:

• 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, one can problematize assumptions about technology-driven social develop­ment that have a bearing on the world of work and the supply of skills. They are also seen in relation to policy goals for sustainable economic, social and environmental development. What needs to be done to enable sustainable development based on human rights, gender equality and no one being left behind? In this knowledge base, opportunities and challenges are discussed.