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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.

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.

This chapter introduces theoretical and empirical perspectives on the gendering of work organisations, working conditions, and work relations, including health and safety at work. It discusses why gendered norms at work continue to be an important field of study and why Sweden is an interesting case for exploring the gendering of labour markets and jobs. In particular, the chapter discusses how the gendering of work organisations and jobs in health and social care have consequences for women working in these sectors. The chapter also presents the organisation of this volume and the contribution of each of its chapters.

This chapter reviews the current state of the science on intragroup conflicts and its impact on employee well-being. It also explores how task, relationship and process conflicts relate to gender perceptions and practices among welfare workers in women-dominated work. The analysis, guided by the theory of intragroup conflict, uses qualitative interviews with 26 managers and their employees at three workplaces in Sweden. The review concludes that, although conflicts are emotional, not all of them affect welfare workers' well-being over time. Only relationship conflicts seem to be hurtful to employee well-being. The empirical analysis suggests that intragroup conflicts are inherently emotional, with workers putting their emotions aside during their professional efforts to raise standards and improve the quality of practice at work. Task conflicts emerge both horizontally and vertically, whereas process and relationship conflicts are, to a high degree, related to status and power, that is, produced vertically. The empirical analyses reveal no differences between the ways in which men and women in welfare occupations perceive or practise intragroup conflict, calling into question the societal discourse that women are not very good at fighting and that they fight more than men.

This study examined the prevalence and consequences of intragroup conflicts for well-being in three women-dominated occupations from a gender perspective. Using survey data from 1299 nurses, teachers, and social workers, we found that task conflict was the most common type of conflict but it was unrelated to well-being. Relationship conflict was negatively associated with vigor and positively associated with employee stress, burnout, and depression. Process conflicts were positively associated with depression. Our findings revealed that women and men in the same occupation experience intragroup conflicts in the same way. Organizations should therefore primarily reduce relationship conflicts to ensure employee well-being.

Practitioner Points:

● Not all types of conflicts at work are destructive. Some types of conflict may in fact be a good thing!

● Task conflict is the most common type of conflict in women-dominated workplaces, but it does not impair employee well-being. Instead, the contesting of ideas may lead to nuanced decisions.

● Managers in women-dominated workplaces should pay close attention to, and try to resolve, relationship conflicts as they may reduce employee well-being.