Sustainability and gender equality in the high-tech working life of the future

The future labour market will be digitalised, robotised and automated, resulting in certain jobs disappearing and a growing demand for employment in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) sector. In view of the fact that the labour market is divided up by gender and that the proportion of women within this sector is low, this may have long-term implications in terms of gender equality in the Nordic labour market.

The Nordic Council of Ministers’ working life, gender equality, education and research sectors and the Nordic cooperation programme Generation 2030 therefore tasked NIKK with producing a knowledge base. This included investigating how the Nordic nations are working to achieve a better gender balance in education and professions as demanded within the natural sciences and technology, and how this is expected to contribute towards sustainability and gender equality in future labour markets.

The assignment resulted in:

• A Nordic overview of existing research in connection with gender-related study choices within the STEM sector
• An inventorying and analysis of concrete initiatives within the Nordic region to reduce the gender imbalance within STEM
• An outlook of how a selection of other countries outside the Nordic region promote a gender balance within STEM

The report is available in Swedish, with a summary in English.

Project timespan
2019-2021

Commissioned by
Nordic Council of Ministers, Generation 2030

Contact
Jenny Pentler

Project budget
800 000 DKK