‘Are we to become a gender university?’ Facets of resistance to a gender equality project

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Powell, StinaSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för stad och land,Department of Urban and Rural Development,Swedish Univ Agr Sci, Dept Urban & Rural Dev, Div Environm Commun, Uppsala, Turkey.,Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden (författare)

Gender equality (GE) is something ‘we cannot not want’. Indeed, the pursuit of equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for all women and men throughout a society freed from gendered oppression is widely visible in recent organizational GE initiatives. In practice, however, GE initiatives often fail in challenging gendered norms and at effecting deep-seated change. In fact, GE measures tend to encounter resistance, with a gap between saying and doing. Using a GE project at a Swedish university, we examined the changing nature of reactions to GE objectives seeking to understand why gender inequality persists in academia. We used ‘resistance’ to identify multiple, complex reactions to the project, focusing on the discursive practices of GE. Focusing our contextual analysis on change and changes in reactions enabled a process-oriented analysis that revealed gaps where change is possible. Thus, we argue that studying change makes it possible to identify points in time where gendered discriminatory norms are more likely to occur. However, analysing discursive practices does not itself lead to change nor to action. Rather, demands for change must start with answering, in a collaborative way, what problem we are trying to solve when we start a new GE project, in order to be relevant to the specific context. Otherwise, GE risks being the captive of consensus politics and gender inequality will persist.

Ah-King, MalinStockholms universitet,Genusvetenskap,Stockholm Univ, Dept Ethnol Hist Relig & Gender Studies, Gender Studies, Stockholm, Sweden.,Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden(Swepub:su)malinak (författare)
Hussénius, Anita,1956-Uppsala universitet,Högskolan i Gävle,Miljöteknik,Centrum för genusvetenskap,Univ Gavle, Chem, Gavle, Sweden.(Swepub:uu)anitahus (författare)
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitetInstitutionen för stad och land (creator_code:org_t)
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Ingår i:Gender, Work and Organization: Blackwell Publishing Ltd25:2, s. 127-1430968-66731468-0432

Av författaren/redakt...: Powell, Stina; Ah-King, Malin; Hussénius, Anita ...

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Av lärosätet: Högskolan i Gävle; Stockholms universitet; Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet; Uppsala universitet

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