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Context-specific GE knowledge is essential for epistemic contribution, nuanced understanding, and practical GE work in the Arctic HEIs. However, there is a shortage of research regarding gender equality (GE) in these institutions. We explored GE in HEI, and conducted a review on the Scopus database focusing on GE research done in the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The aim is to explore the produced GE research in an HEI context conducted by scholars affiliated with the Arctic Five universities. As a result, 24 articles met the inclusion criteria, most of which were published in Swedish universities (60%). Articles were dealing with; Academic careers, leadership and gender equality; Change agents and methods for reducing bias; Gendered constructions and gender equality; Discrimination and gender equality, and Entrepreneurship, innovation and gender equality, following mainstream gender equality research. Gender was often presented with binary division, women and men, and as opposite or distinctive from each other. However, some discussions went beyond binary gender categorizations—yet intersectional approaches were not prevalent. Arctic or northern contextualizations were not explicitly presented or elaborated in the studies, neither were Sámi research participants and Sámi researchers’ contribution.

Destructive leadership does not occur in a vacuum; rather, these behaviors are part of a social process in which leader and follower interact and influence each other. Still, knowledge regarding followers’ behaviors as antecedents to destructive leadership behavior is limited, even more so from a gender perspective. In this study, we investigate the relationship between perceived lack of team motivation and destructive leadership behavior, with the leader’s gender as a moderator. Together with Statistic Sweden, we collected data using a two-wave survey design. We included 784 participants in the analysis, using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that perceived lack of team motivation was associated with active and passive destructive leadership behaviors. Beyond that, the leader’s gender moderated the relationship between leaders’ perception of team amotivation and active destructive leadership. The results show that male leaders are more prone to act destructively when they perceive a lack of team motivation. These results suggest that male leaders may be more susceptible to engaging in destructive leadership behaviors due to identity threat than female leaders. Therefore, we examine how the construction of gender and identity and the close association between masculinity and leader identity contribute to the risk of engaging in destructive leadership behavior.

Balancing between conflicting ideals. A study on ethical leader-ship, gender equality and diversity work in an upper secondary school. The aim of this article is to explore what characterizes principals’ ethical leadership in relation to gender- and diversity work at an upper sec-ondary school distinguished by its elite program profile. Our main research interest is to investigate how principals describe and relate to the school’s equality work. The study’s theoretical understanding is founded in Starratt’s descriptions of ethical leadership. The study emanates from 12 in-depth individual and focus group interviews with a total of 47 individuals, both school staff and pupils. Our conclusion is that the principals’ stated mission is to communicate success and create a school for a selected group of students. Furthermore, this mission becomes part of the principals’ responsibility. This means that their presence and authenticity in the processes, as well as the requirements and expectations set by the school organizer, limit the opportunities for principals to achieve gender equality and diversity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a scale that can be used to assess inequality at work based on gender, age and ethnicity that is grounded in Acker’s (2006) inequality regimes.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors used three representative samples (total N = 1,806) of Swedish teachers, nurses and social workers to develop and validate the scale. The validation process included the assessment of content validity, confirmatory factor analysis for factorial validity, internal consistency and associations with theoretically warranted outcomes and related constructs to assess criterion-related validity and convergent validity.

Findings: The authors found evidence supporting the content, factorial, criterion-related and convergent validity of the InEquality in organisations Scale (InE-S). Furthermore, the scale demonstrated high internal consistency.

Originality/value: The newly developed scale InE-S may be used to further the understanding of how inequality at work influences employees. This study makes a contribution to the current literature by providing a scale that, for the first time, can test Acker’s hypotheses using quantitative methods to demonstrate the consequences of inequality at work.

This paper explores how workers in the women-dominated public sectorin Sweden speak about and make sense of gender and intragroup conflictand the consequences of this way of thinking and acting for genderequality at work. Using qualitative interviews with 26 first-level managersand employees, we introduce an analytical framework that employs criticaldiscourse psychology and the conceptualization of a postfeministsensibility at work. We identified three competing meanings (postfeministstorylines) of gender and intragroup conflict: Supporting the genderedmeanings of conflict, Unawareness of conflict’s gendered meanings andCounteracting the gendered meanings of conflict. The welfare workersacknowledged the role of gender in intragroup conflicts but, paradoxically,constructed their own workplaces as gender neutral, withoutinequalities related to gender. We interpret these three postfeminist storylinesas coping strategies; that is, as ways to make sense of the falsepromise of gender egalitarianism that characterizes the Swedish labourmarket.

Background: This article focuses on knowledge development and health professionals’ opportunitiesto use evidence-based practice (EBP). We studied registered physiotherapists (PT), occupationaltherapists (OT) and nurses (RN) in Swedish elderly-care institutions, a sector known for highturnover and shortages of competent staff.Objective: To examine the perspectives of healthcare providers on professional knowledge developmentand EBP in their organization.

Methods: We conducted on-site qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of PTs, OTs andRNs, in six elderly care institutions. Situational analysis was used to analyze the material.

Results: Three discursive professional positions were found: 1) Professional ambition in confusingwork organization; 2) Professional ambition in a knowledge-promoting work organization; and 3) Professional indifference with few aspirations for knowledge development. Professional aspirationstoward knowledge development were high in two of these positions, whereas the third representsa slightly different approach with fewer aspirations for knowledge development. Linked to theseprofessional approaches to knowledge development is a continuum of aggravating or facilitatingfactors within the work organization, including varying degrees of support from leadership of theorganization, as well as few opportunities for rewards.

Discussion and conclusions: It is concluded that elderly care needs to develop strategies forevidence-based practice in order for the sector to become a sustainable arena for health professionals’career development, and in order to improve the quality of care for the elderly.

Detta kapitel undersöker vilka konflikter som uppkommer och hur medarbetare, arbetsledare och första linjens chef hanterar dem på en kvinnohomogen arbetsplats. Vidare tittar vi på vilka organisatoriska förutsättningar som finns vad gäller konflikthantering, där relationsarbete är en central del av arbetsinnehållet. Intresset ligger i frågan om hur man för framtiden kan bygga en långsiktigt hållbar arbetsmiljö i en sektor där stress och hälsa i dag är ansträngd och sjuktalen höga. Argumenten till varför detta är en relevant framtidsfråga inom konfliktforskningen hänger samman med antaganden om att arbetskraften kommer bli mer heterogen, och att utbildningsnivåerna och specialisering i arbetslivet kommer öka. Det gör att olika professioner med potentiellt skilda kunskaper, värderingar och normer, kommer att samarbeta. Sammantaget ökar detta risken för missförstånd, irritation och osämja. Kapitlet bygger på forskningsprojektet Att räkna med bråk? En studie av konflikter och psykisk ohälsa i kvinnodominerade arbetsplatser ur ett genusperspektiv.

Sexual harassment and other forms of offensive behaviour are serious problems within academia. They affect students and staff alike and are found in all disciplines. In this study, we consider the various forms and expressions of harassment. In addition to sexual harassment, this includes bullying, cyberbullying, victimisation and incivility, all of which we examine under the umbrella term gender-based violence. 

The purpose of this report is to describe the occurrence of and analyse the corelation between sexual harassment, and other forms of gender-based violence, and the work environment and health of staff and students at Umeå University. The report is based on a national study of the prevalence of sexual harassment in academia conducted within the framework of The Research and Collaboration Programme on Gender-based Violence. 

In answer to a direct question regarding whether the respondent had been subjected to unwanted sexual attention in their place of work/study, 2.2% of staff and 6.4% of students replied in the affirmative. Among women, prevalence is higher among female students than female employees, with 7% of this group having been subjected to such behaviour, and the same is true of men, with more male students (5.5%) reporting incidents. When the question of sexual harassment is broken down into specific situations and acts, the figure increases significantly, with as many as 51% of female employees and 29% of men stating that they had experienced at least one of the specified situations. Notably, levels among female employees of Umeå University are significantly higher than the figure for the Swedish higher education sector as a whole. The corresponding figure for students at Umeå University is, however, lower than the national average for the higher education sector, with 16% of women and 9% of men responding in the affirmative. 

There are also notable disparities between the sexes with regard to bullying, with twice as many women as men reporting problems, and reporting a higher frequency of offences. However, bullying is reported to a greater extent by male than female students. There are also gender disparities in incivility, with significantly more female employees reporting incidents than men. 

Sexism in the form of sexual harassment and gender-based violence can of course be understood as a means of academic reproduction; i.e., as one of the components that maintains and recreates the various structures, hierarchies and gender-inequitable workplaces in academia. As this study makes clear, sexual harassment and gender-based violence create a systematic and recurring pattern of unwelcome events that can be understood as institutional mechanisms and behaviours that risk being normalised. This also produces other problems in addition to gender inequality. In the study, we find clear correlations for both staff and students between sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence and experiences of the psychosocial and organisational work environment and health.

Sexuella trakasserier och andra typer av kränkande beteenden är allvarliga problem inom akademin. Det drabbar både studenter och anställda och förekommer inom alla discipliner. I denna studie tar vi hänsyn till utsatthetens olika former och uttryck genom att förutom sexuella trakasserier inkludera förekomst av mobbning, nätmobbning, kränkande särbehandling och ohövligt beteende under samlingsnamnet ’genusbaserad utsatthet’. 

Syftet med denna rapport är att beskriva förekomst av, och analysera samband mellan, sexuella trakasserier och andra former av genusbaserad utsatthet, samt arbetsmiljö och hälsa bland anställda och studenter vid Umeå universitet. Till grund för denna rapport ligger en nationell prevalensstudie om sexuella trakasserier i akademin som genomfördes inom ramen för Forsknings- och samverkansprogrammet om sexuella trakasserier och genusbaserad utsatthet. 

På en direkt fråga om respondenten blivit utsatt för icke önskvärd sexuell uppmärksamhet på sitt arbete/sin studieplats så rapporterar totalt 2,2 procent av de anställda och 6,4 procent av studenter att de blivit utsatta. Prevalensen är högre bland kvinnorna i gruppen studenter där 7 procent har utsatts och dessutom är utsatta män (5,5 procent) vanligare bland studenter jämfört med anställda. När frågan om sexuella trakasserier istället bryts ner i frågor om konkreta situationer och handlingar stiger siffrorna betydligt, uppemot hela 51 procent för anställda kvinnor svarade jakande på om de utsatts för minst en av de uppräknade situationerna och 29 procent av männen svarade också ja på dessa frågor. Noterbart här är att nivåerna för anställda kvinnor vid Umeå universitet är betydligt högre i jämförelse med högskolesektorn som helhet. Vad gäller studenterna så är motsvarande siffror vid Umeå universitet dock lägre jämfört med högskolesektorn som helhet, vid frågor om konkreta situationer och handlingar, 16 procent för kvinnorna och 9 procent för männen. 

Könsskillnader är även noterbara i avseende på mobbning, där andelen anställda som utsatts för mobbning är dubbelt så stor bland kvinnorna jämfört med männen samt att kvinnorna rapporterar högre frekvens. Bland studenterna rapporterar dock män en högre utsatthet vad gäller mobbning. Det finns även könsskillnader kring ohövligt beteende där betydligt fler bland de anställda kvinnorna rapporterar utsatthet jämfört med männen. 

Sexism i form av sexuella trakasserier och genusbaserad utsatthet kan förstås som ett medel för akademins reproduktion, det vill säga, som en utav de beståndsdelar som upprätthåller och återskapar akademins olika strukturer, hierarkier och ojämlika arbetsplatser. I denna studie blir det tydligt att sexuella trakasserier och genusbaserad utsatthet skapar ett systematiskt och upprepat mönster av ovälkomna händelser. Det kan förstås som institutionella mekanismer och beteenden som härigenom riskerar att normaliseras. Förutom ojämlikhet finns här även andra problem som produceras. I studien finns för både anställda och studenter tydliga samband mellan sexuella trakasserier, de andra formerna av genusbaserad utsatthet och upplevelsen av psykosocial och organisatorisk arbetsmiljö samt hälsa.