The aim of this article is to study how problem definitions of gender equality affect the possible outcomes of gender equality initiatives. The Swedish Municipal Rescue Services were chosen as the empirical example because they offer a workplace where women are greatly under-represented despite years of gender equality efforts. The article analyses how reasoning around gender equality shapes and constructs problem formulations around gender and equality. This article contributes to the debate on the conditions of gender equality founded on gender equality definitions, and how this relates to the potential for change. The gender equality efforts within the Rescue Services are problematized based on Bacchi’s policy analysis model. We do so by analysing the applications attracted by a call for a gender equality initiative within the Municipal Rescue Services—A Fire Station for Everyone. The article argues that, to some extent, the problem definitions in this case undermine gender equality initiatives as they place women—whom they wish to recruit to the Rescue Services to make it more gender equal in a numerical sense—in a paradoxical position as both problem and solution. Nor do they problematize power issues. It is stated that the given problem descriptions do not leave a lot of room for change, but that the method used to analyse the problem descriptions can be an important tool for understanding why gender equality initiatives may struggle to achieve their intended objectives.
Sedan utbildningen Skydd mot olyckor, SMO startades 2003 har andelen examinerade kvinnor varit runt 16 procent. Det har funnits en förväntan att andelen kvinnorsom jobbar inom operativ räddningstjänst ska öka i takt med att antalet SMO-utbildade kvinnor ökar, men dessa förväntningar har inte infriats i den grad som motsetts. Det har rest frågor om varför det ser ut på detta sätt, och vad det är för faktorer som ligger till grund för kvinnornas karriärval. I föreliggande undersökning har vi närmat oss dessa frågor genom att undersöka karriärval bland hela gruppen examinerade från SMO under åren 2007-2016 i en enkätundersökning samt några kompletterande intervjuer. Detta ger en bred bild av olika karriärval och omfattar såväl dem som valt att aldrig söka sig till räddningstjänsten till dem som jobbat där en kortare tid och sedan sökt sig till annat arbete, samt dem som arbetat inom räddningstjänsten sedan sin utbildning, i en eller flera räddningstjänstorganisationer. I undersökningen ingår också de personer som examinerats från Påbyggnads-utbildning i räddningstjänst för brandingenjörer (RUB) under motsvarande år. Brandingenjörer inom kommunal räddningstjänst är en grupp som det i dagsläget finns ganska lite kunskap om, inte minst i fråga om jämställdhet och mångfald, och genom undersökningen ges ett bidrag till en inledande förståelse för denna grupps karriärval och syn på räddningstjänsten som arbetsplats.
Rapporten bygger på ett utrednings- och forskningsuppdrag från MSB att ta fram en forskningsinriktad studie, som kan utgöra ett underlag för beslut om inriktning och handlingsplan för stöd till kommunal räddningstjänst i arbetet för ökad jämställdhet och mångfald.
Studien landar i fyra förbättringsområden för räddningstjänsten som organisation, men där även MSB har en viktig roll att spela: Kompetensutvecklings- och karriärmöjligheter, Jämställdhet och mångfald, Organisation och ledning, samt Koppling mellan utbildning och arbete. Alla dessa fyra områden innehåller viktiga förklaringsfaktorer till varför såväl kvinnor som män väljer att inte jobba inom räddningstjänsten trots att de lagt kraft och energi i utbildning för ett arbete inom organisationen. Det är också viktiga områden att jobba vidare med för att fler inte ska välja att sluta.
This dissertation aims at describing the worldview and the ontological boundary work that descriptions of the information society presuppose as well as understanding how these relate to technocratic descriptions of the world. The theoretical point of origin of this work is that worldviews are communicated, and that when this transpires, three worlds are related to (the objective, the social, and the subjective) which contain ideological components that make them plausible. The material that has been studied is public documents from 1994 2004. These materials have been analysed with the help of text analysis, where a reconstruction of the ideological components of the worldview is the objective. The results of the analysis show that these descriptions, first of all, presuppose an objective world where an ontological boundary between technology and values is drawn. Technology is driven by one form of logic and values are driven by another. Technology does not in itself contain values, but when put to use, only certain types of value can be created. The subsequent theoretical consequences are that these values (for instance effectiveness) are presented as objective, independent of value conflicts in society. Second, the analysis shows that descriptions partly presuppose a social world that is divided into a normative centre and a normative periphery, and partly a historicist description of historical development. These two ideological components provide a logical consequence, that in the social world, identifiable groups who live according to lifestyle patterns of the future can already be found today. Third, results show that descriptions presuppose a subjective world that is possible to change and direct. Man is to be made responsive to certain aspects of his existence and unresponsive toward others. This requires causing him to be responsive to change and unresponsive to that which hinders change. The logical consequences become a description of a system integrated information society where the individual is to adapt himself to changes on the system level. All in all, the three results of the study show that the world view which the descriptions presuppose have clear elements of technocracy and the art of social engineering.
This article centres on emotions within the Swedish rescue services in terms of the concepts of emotional regime and emotional pasts, partly with a focus on the role of emotional pasts in emotional regimes, partly on how the (re)construction of emotional pasts relates to the organisation of the workplace. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with five female and 13 male firefighters in Sweden, aged 28-58. Results show that individual experiences are used as emotional pasts to define work situations in the present and that work teams, through informal conversations and formal debriefing, create stories out of central events, thus constructing shared emotional pasts. All in all, the analysis shows that temporalities and their narrative expressions are a vital part of how emotional regimes are sustained within the rescue services, which has implications for the understanding of the rescue services as an organisation.
This article discusses gender mainstreaming (GMS) as a strategy to implement gender equality in public work organizations by analysing discourse in terms of the theoretical notions of translation and circulation in organizations to shed light on how gender equality and the mainstreaming strategy are formulated in the documents which govern the Swedish fire and rescue services. More specifically, it looks at how the goals regarding gender equality are circulated and translated. The results show that gender equality as a practice is created in the translation of national goals in terms of the local context and its specific gender equality challenges. Furthermore, the article discusses how vague formulations in the documents are stabilized through circulation between the government and the public agency in question. The results indicate the central role played by maintaining stable translations over time and the presence of a double logic of change in the processes, as well as the importance of legitimizing gender equality initiatives.