| 1. |
- Salminen-Karlsson, Minna, 1957-
(författare)
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All Inclusive Visions? : Gender relations in small ICT firms in India
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The global IT sector has been an important employer of young, educated Indian middle class women. The jobs have often been created by large multinational companies, with headquarters inside or outside India. The IT sector has been seen to be promoting gender equality in the Indian society by providing professional employment to women. Multinational companies with headquarters in the West are sometimes seen as promoting gender equality in the Indian patriarchal context, for example, by implementing corporate gender equality policies (Adler, 2000; Kelkar & Shresta & Veena, 2002). However, the picture is not all positive. Poster (2008) shows how corporate equality policies are transformed in local contexts to become more in tune with the local traditions. Moreover, research in gender and organizations has criticized the hierarchical organizational settings as being particularly problematic for women (Acker, 1990). The Indian offices of large IT companies are prime examples of this kind of organizing. In addition, there are particular problems in the Indian societal context that Western based gender equality policies fail to target: The restricted mobility of women and the expectation that women give their family preference over work (Kelkar & Shresta & Veena, 2002; Shanker 2008). Work in multinational IT companies in India is often characterised by long working hours and night shifts to cater to the needs of foreign clients, restricting women’s possibilities to participate. This interview study looks at two small IT enterprises in India, one managed by Swedes and the other by Dutch. Against the backdrop of previous research in big Indian IT companies, the study investigates how gender relations are shaped in this kind of Swedish/Dutch organizational islands in the Indian organizational and societal context, and in particular how managers from relatively gender-equal societies relate to the organizational implications of the local societal gender contracts. The relationship between formal and informal barriers for women’s careers (Wajcman 1998) can be expected to be different here, compared to the large hierarchical organizations. Both companies in the study have a partly visionary origin – the aim of the founding men has not only been to conduct successful businesses, but also to create better workplaces than the big hierarchical IT ‘code industries’. These small firms are designed to work with flat structures, interaction with the foreign clients by all employees, reasonable working hours and social coherence. Thus, they provide an alternative way of organizing, which should be beneficial to female employees. However, these small companies also rely on the visions and decisions of their founding men and informal and personal solutions. They do not have official gender equality plans and policies, and this might make them a problematic environment for women. In addition to illuminating gender relations in small, foreign-owned firms which are an under-researched part of the Indian IT labour market, the study relates to questions regarding the possibilities for societal gender equality ideologies to travel globally through policies and through individuals.
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| 2. |
- Salminen-Karlsson, Minna, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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Decoupling gender equality from gender pay audits in Swedish municipalities
- 2022
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Ingår i: Economic and Industrial Democracy. - : Sage Publications. - 0143-831X .- 1461-7099. ; 43:4, s. 1588-1609
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article investigates processes of gender pay audits in five municipalities in Sweden in order to understand the reasons why gender pay audits in general do not level out men’s and women’s salaries in the way they are intended to. The results show how gender pay audits became a bureaucratic process to fulfil a legal requirement, and how they were decoupled from core organizational practices and salary policies. This decoupling was furthered by the realization that the result of gender pay audits would imply a need for large structural changes in pay policies, for which there were no financial means. Consequently, decoupling was found to be a major reason why gender pay audits are ineffective in coming to terms with gender pay gaps.
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| 3. |
- Kalat, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Coping with higher educational expectations : Gender, class and challenges in prestigious contexts
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research topic/Aim: In this paper we explore the challenges of coping with high-status and competitive HE programmes in elite contexts where top achievements are generally taken for granted. We consider how different learning and social contexts are related to students’ experiences of stress, and what kinds of coping strategies are available and used by different groups of students (e.g. class and gender).Theoretical frameworks: The analysis is informed by sociological stress research (e.g. Pearlin 1989), studies on gender, class and higher education (e.g. Reay et al. 2009) and academic self-concept (e.g. Marsh & Parker, 1984; Eccles 2009). Methodology/research design: We draw upon data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates how constructions of masculinities and student identities inform strategies for coping with risks of academic failure and/or striving for success. The project focuses on three elite HE programmes: Medicine, Law and Engineering. Data are being generated by focus group interviews and individual interviews with students and staff. The interviews explored: 1) the learning/teaching contexts and cultures; 2) patterns of academic achievement and advice-seeking; 3) assessments and social comparisons; 4) stress and self-worth protecting strategies; 5) gender formations and men’s identities. Data were analyzed in Atlas.ti using a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore how male students’ identities and strategies are underpinned by the individual, interactional and institutional orders in the different contexts.Expected conclusions/Findings: Our data suggest that students knew that the programmes would be demanding and many students reporting choosing them because they wanted to be challenged academically. However, most had not anticipated the challenges they would face in terms of their academic identities. The transition to the new environment meant that most students had to negotiate a change from being a top student to being an ‘average’ or ‘low’ achiever, and many struggled with trying to find a sustainable work/rest balance. Students used a multitude of strategies which we explore in this paper; e.g. increased academic effort and withdrawal from other activities; displaying calmness and engagement in the programme communities; concealing poor test results; and also, seeking academic and emotional support from peers. While gendered discourses of ‘effortless achievement’ and detachment from studies were regarded as less prominent than in schooling, hiding stress and effort were described as especially common for men and associated with masculinity.Relevance for Nordic Educational Research: By examining undergraduate stress and well-being in prestigious contexts, we will begin to shed more light on (1) how privilege are maintained, reinforced, and might be challenged, and, also, (2) the pressures and demands on many middle-class young people and the effects on their wellbeing.
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| 4. |
- Kalat, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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There’s no balance there’s only chaos’ : Men students’ experiences and expressions of negative emotions in prestigious degree programmes
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores men students’ experiences and expressions of negative affect, especially shame and fear. We ask how these are informed by gender, social class and prestigious higher education contexts. Context and social categories inform affect-norms, which in turn inform understandings of, for example, which forms of affect are legitimate to experience and express. The importance of considering affective dimensions in education has been demonstrated beyond their effects on well-being. Previous research implies, for example, that joy and pride, as well as shame, fear of failure and test-anxiety, have implications for students’ motivation, effort and choice of educational trajectories. The paper draws on data from an ongoing qualitative, large-scale interview study about masculinity and men students in England and Sweden (2015-2018). Semi-structured interviews (approx. 1-1.5 hours) were conducted with students and staff in Law, Medicine and Physics engineering, i.e. prestigious and stressful programmes that recruit primarily top-achieving, middle-class young people. The findings suggest that experiencing (overwhelming) pressure and some degree of exam-anxiety were expected and normalized in these milieus. This applied to both men and women, although men overall were seen as more likely than women to conceal stress and anxiety. Furthermore, expectations relating to degree programme, as well as gender, were important in shaping affect-norms. For example, whereas law and engineering students were expected to conceal ‘weaknesses’, medical students had considerably more leeway to be open about difficulties, and peers were expected to respond sympathetically. Of course, men students within programmes do not constitute a homogeneous group, so we also investigate differences at an individual level about how pressures were felt and expressed.
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| 5. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Coping with higher educational expectations : Gender, class and unequal challenges in prestigious contexts
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores men students’ experiences and expressions of negative affect, especially shame and fear. We ask how these are informed by gender, social class and prestigious higher education contexts. Context and social categories inform affect-norms, which in turn inform understandings of, for example, which kinds of affect are legitimate to experience and express. The importance of considering affective dimensions in education has been demonstrated beyond their effects on well-being; e.g. joy and pride, as well as shame, fear of failure and test-anxiety, have implications for students’ motivation, effort and choice of educational trajectories. The paper draws on data from an ongoing qualitative, large-scale study about masculinity and men students in England and Sweden (2015-2018). Semi-structured interviews (approx. 1-1.5 hours) were conducted with students and staff in Law, Medicine and Physics engineering, i.e. prestigious and stressful programmes that recruit primarily top-achieving, middle-class young people. This paper explore the challenges of coping with prestigious and competitive HE programmes. How do different learning and social contexts, gender and class, inform students’ experiences of stress and strategies manage these? The analysis is informed by sociological stress research and theories about self-worth and social identity. We draw upon data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates student identities, masculinities and academic failure and success in Medicine, Law and Engineering physics. Data are being generated by focus group interviews and individual interviews with students and staff, and analyzed in Atlas.ti using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Our data suggest that these programmes, in part, attracted students because of being renowned as challenging. However, most had not anticipated the challenges in terms of their academic identities; many students had to negotiate a change from being a top student to being an ‘average’ or ‘low’ achiever, and many struggled with to find a sustainable work/rest balance. Students used a multitude of strategies which we explore in relation to gender and class; e.g. increased academic effort and withdrawal from other activities, displaying calmness and concealing poor test results, and, also, seeking academic and emotional support from peers. By examining undergraduate stress and well-being in prestigious contexts, we will begin to shed more light on (1) how privilege are maintained, reinforced, and might be challenged, and, also, (2) the pressures and demands on many middle-class young people and the effects on their wellbeing.
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| 6. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Formations of success : Gender, class and academic achievements in elite undergraduate programmes.
- 2016
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Ingår i: Symposium: “Engendering success: Constructions of achievement in schooling and higher education”, <em>GEA 2016 interim conference, Gender Equality Matters: Education, Intersectionality and Nationalism Social Justice, Equality and Solidarity in Education</em>, Linköping/Sweden, June 15-17th 2016..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Engendering success: Constructions of achievement in schooling and higher education Overview This symposium explores how gender and social class intersect with students’ learning and identity processes in schooling and higher education (H.E.). All three papers consider the ways in which ‘success’ is constructed in different educational settings, and the relationships between these constructions and discourses about gender, effort and ‘talent’. The papers by Nyström et al., and Allan both draw on research undertaken in elite H.E. contexts, where being a high achiever is expected. Allan’s work focuses on the narratives of privileged young women in a UK university, while Nyström et al.’s study focuses on masculinities in elite university contexts in Sweden and the UK. Holm and Öhrn’s paper draws upon data from ethnographic research with girls and boys in schools in Sweden to explore gendered discourses on performance and knowledge. All papers consider intersections between gender, privilege and achievement. Papers Gendered discourses on knowledge and performances in secondary school - Ann-Sofie Holm & Elisabet Öhrn (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) Formations of success: Gender, class and academic achievements in elite undergraduate programmes - Anne-Sofie Nyström1, Carolyn Jackson2 & Minna Salminen Karlsson1 (1Uppsala University, Sweden; 2Lancaster University, UK) Who I was, where I am, what I want to be: Young women’s retrospective tales of class, gender and achievement - Alexandra Allan (University of Exeter, UK) Discussant – Debbie Epstein (Roehampton University, UK) AbstractsGendered discourses on knowledge and performances in secondary schoolAnn-Sofie Holm & Elisabet ÖhrnDepartment of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Recent research points at declining achievement trends for Sweden in comparison with other countries, and also increasing differences between municipalities, schools and student groups. The longstanding pattern that girls achieve better than boys in school still occurs. This paper aims to explore various discourses of gender and achievement in student peer groups and in various teaching contexts in Sweden. Ethnographic field studies (class room observations, informal and formal interviews) were conducted in three grade 9 classes (including 70 students 15-16 years old) at three different schools. The findings indicate the presence of intertwined and gendered discourses on performance and knowledge. One is stressing everyone’s equal chance of success if only they make an effort and study hard, and the other presenting ‘real’ knowledge as related to ‘natural talent’. The latter is connected to a ’laid back’ attitude towards schooling and is highly valued and generally ascribed to boys. Studying is not denied by the boys, but put in perspective of other (valuable) social activities and relations. The analyses also indicates that the ‘anti-school cultures’ in the study might be seen as to represent cultures of talent. Girls’ higher grades are, on the other hand, often devalued and related to ‘swotting’, although seemingly adhering to demands on individual achievement. If anything, knowledge based on hard work might be suspected as attempts to cover up for lack of real talent. This discourse is more pronounced among privileged students, but is also expressed by teachers. Keywords: secondary school, maculinities, femininities, study achievements, performativity Formations of success: Gender, class and academic achievements in elite undergraduate programmes Anne-Sofie Nyström1, Carolyn Jackson2 & Minna Salminen Karlsson11Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University, Sweden2Department for Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK This paper explores constructions of achievement in relation to gender, class and learning/teaching contexts. In particular, we consider the ways in which ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are rendered visible in English and Swedish elite higher education environments, and how such instances relate to the programmes’ different structures and cultures. The body of research about boys’ and young men’s ‘underachievement’ and ‘effortless achievement’ is substantial, especially in relation to schooling. However, far less is known about how discourses of masculinity intersect with those of academic achievement among undergraduate students, especially in contexts where students are expected to be high flyers and excel academically. We draw on data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates how constructions of masculinities and student identities inform strategies for coping with risks of academic failure and/or striving for success. The research focuses on Medicine, Law and Engineering Physics undergraduate programmes, all of which are regarded as competitive and high status, and recruit predominantly middle and upper-middle class young people. However, the programmes vary in terms of pedagogy and culture, as well as the gender composition of the intakes. Data are being generated by focus group and individual semi-structured interviews with students and staff. In this paper we draw mainly on data from staff. Through our discussion we shed light on some of the ways in which men undergraduates’ learner identities are constructed within these privileged academic contexts. Keywords: Privilege; Masculinity; Social Class; Student Identity; Higher Education;Who I was, where I am, what I want to be: Young women’s retrospective tales of class, gender and achievementAlexandra Allan Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter, UK This paper seeks to explore the different (often multiple, complex andfragile) relationships which young women have with academic achievement (their experiences of achievement and their own subjective sense of what it means to achieve). It will do so by drawing on the narratives of a group of relatively privileged young women (aged 18-21) who all attended the same ‘top’ UK university. The paper will explore what it meant for these young women to position themselves, and be positioned as, high achievers, in an educational context where high achievement was often taken for granted and commonly explained as simply ‘running in their blood’. In particular, the paper will look at the narratives which these young women constructed about their past achievements; stories which were central to the tales which they told around achievement and which appeared to be deeply felt. The point is not to view these ‘histories’ as a way of recapturing self-evident and static pasts (and, therefore, as devices which might also tell us something concrete about how these young women ended up where they did today). But rather, to understand how these retrospective narratives were being constructed in the light of the young women’s present experiences, and used in a variety of ways as they attempted to understand and position themselves as certain sorts of achievers in the present, and as they sought to prepare for and imagine possible futures.
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| 7. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Reflections of and about success and failure : Gender and academic achievement in three Swedish educational elite contexts
- 2016
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Ingår i: Symposium: Negotiating self and higher education: Exploring gendered identity processes in relation to choices and learning among undergraduates. <em>, the Gender and Education Network, <em>NERA 44<sup>th</sup> Congress</em>, ‘Social Justice, Equality and Solidarity in Education’, </em>Helsinki. March 9<sup>th</sup>-11<sup>th</sup>.<em></em>.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This symposium explores undergraduates’ identity and learning processes in contemporary higher education. In particular, it asks: How do different learning/teaching contexts and discourses about gender, class, sexuality, age etc. inform undergraduates’ choices, educational and social strategies and their experiences of university?Drawing on a cross-national comparative interview study, Nyström, Salminen Karlsson and Jackson’s paper explores constructions and understandings of men’s effort, talent, academic failure and success within different elite contexts. Masculinity and affect are also central themes in Ottemo’s paper, which draws on an ethnographic study that examined, from a queer-perspective, passionate reasons for being interested in education and learning in technology. The final paper, by Bøe, Ryder & Ulriksen, explores STEM choices and especially women's choices, based on findings from a large, mixed-methods European study called IRIS.Hence, the symposium discusses processes that lie beneath the gendered and classed patterns of students’ trajectories and outcomes in higher education. Such discussions are vital because in the Nordic countries, as in Europe overall, women have constituted the majority of undergraduate students since the 1990s and, in general, are more likely than men to perform well and complete their studies. Nevertheless, STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), just as academia overall, are still male-dominated in many respects. Our papers and discussion will reflect six national perspectives, from Norway, Sweden, UK, Denmark, Italy, and Slovenia.Papers:1. Reflections of and about men’s failure – Gender and academic achievement in three educational elite contexts Anne-Sofie Nyström, Uppsala University, anne-sofie.nystrom@gender.uu.se; Carolyn Jackson, Lancaster University, c.jackson2@lancaster.ac.uk; Minna Salminen Karlsson, Uppsala University, minna.salminen@gender.uu.se.2. Between instrumentality and passion: The gendering of student subjectivities at two engineering programs at a Swedish university of technologyAndreas Ottemo, University of Gothenburg, andreas.ottemo@ped.gu.se3. The process of choosing STEM higher education: Messages from the IRIS projectMaria Vetleseter Bøe, University of Oslo, m.v.boe@naturfagsenteret.no; Jim Ryder, University of Leeds, j.ryder@education.leeds.ac.uk; Lars Ulriksen, University of Copenhagen, ulriksen@ind.ku.dk Discussant: Elisabet Öhrn, University of Gothenburg, elisabet.ohrn@ped.gu.se Reflections of and about men and failure – Gender and academic achievement in three educational elite contexts Anne-Sofie Nyström, Carolyn Jackson & Minna Salminen KarlssonThis paper explores constructions and understandings of the ways in which effort, talent, academic success and failure are gendered in elite, higher education contexts, with a particular focus on these constructions in relation to men and masculinities. It draws on data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates how constructions of masculinities and student identities inform strategies for coping with risks of academic failure and/or striving for success. The project focuses on three elite undergraduate programmes: Medicine, Law and Engineering. Data are being generated by observations, focus group interviews and individual interviews with students, student representatives, study advisers, lecturers and directors of studies. The project addresses the following research questions:How are ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ student identities perceived and constructed among male undergraduates in different, but highly competitive, educational contexts?What are the main practices and self-worth protection strategies male students use to accomplish successful identities or avoid unsuccessful ones?How does masculinity and its intersections with social class, ethnicity and age, inform staff and students’ understandings of the reasons for academic failure and success?Are there differences between a) Swedish and English HE contexts and b) programmes that hinder or facilitate certain identities or strategies?How do the strategies and practices (in 2) relate to persistence, achievement and wellbeing?This first paper from the project focuses on data from academic and administrative staff in one Swedish university, as well as representatives for student organizations. It explores, in particular, how success and failure are constructed and perceived within the different programmes. These constructions vary between the programmes, partly because of the ways in which the programme content and the grades are related to the future labour market in the different professions. We discuss the ways that success and failure are made more or less important in students’ lives, both by staff and by students themselves, and the ways in which these concepts are rendered visible at particular points, and how such instances relate to the programmes’ different structures and cultures. By examining such issues with a gender perspective we will begin to shed light on some of the ways in which male undergraduates’ learner identities are constructed and negotiated within these privileged academic contexts. Between instrumentality and passion: The gendering of student subjectivities at two engineering programs at a Swedish university of technologyAndreas OttemoIn this paper, I explore student subjectivities articulated in two programs at a Swedish university of technology: Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Chemical Engineering (CE). The paper builds on the assumption that the articulation of gendered subjectivities in these programs relates to how technology is articulated. Much previous research on gender and technology has tended to primarily focus on the “failure” of linking women/femininity to technology. In this paper I, instead, take on a perspective inspired by queer theory in the sense that I focus on norms that articulate masculinity with technology. Theoretically and methodologically, I adopt a post-structural perspective primarily based on discourse theory, as developed by Laclau and Mouffe (1985). I also draw on feminist technoscience research and on Butler’s (1988, 1990, 1993) notion of gender, performativity, and the heterosexual matrix. Empirically, the discussion is based on a recently concluded ethnographic study within a Swedish university of technology.Drawing on a critique that has suggested that gender and technology research often fails to address such aspects, I will call attention to the role of passion, desire and (hetero)sexuality in the production of connections between masculinity and technology (cf. Henwood & Miller 2001, Landström 2006, Mellström 2004, Stepulevage 2001). Somewhat in contrast to this theme, I will also discuss more instrumental approaches to higher technology education. In the analysis, I suggest that the formal education students receive fails, for various reasons, to subjectively engage many students. Consequently, many students adopt an instrumental approach to their education, emphasizing the future exchange value of their formal degree, rather than subjective meaningfulness or the significance of the subject matter as such. I also argue that in failing to “recruit” students, formal education can be considered as privileging the already-passionate student, whose interest in technology is not so easily derailed, even when encountering education that fails to engage subjectively. This “passionate student” subject position is articulated primarily in the CSE program, mainly in informal, student cultural contexts. Here, I argue that technology, corporeality, desire, and embodied computer interest, are configured in a manner that derives intelligibility from the heterosexual matrix and contributes to the CSE program’s hetero-masculine connotations. On the other hand, the absence of the “passionate student” subject position in the CE program, appears to contribute to this program’s relative gender inclusiveness. The process of choosing STEM higher education: Messages from the IRIS projectMaria Vetleseter Bøe, Jim Ryder & Lars UlriksenThis paper reports on the European research project IRIS (Interest and Recruitment in Science)(2010-2013). In IRIS, six partners from five participating countries worked together to improve our understanding of students’ participation and choice in science and technology education, with particular emphasis on gender. The IRIS research activities comprised studies with quantitative, qualitative or mixed-method approaches, targeting both secondary and tertiary level respondents and informants. Some of the studies only used data from within one of the participating countries whereas others worked comparatively with data from different countries. In this paper, we present some insights from the project, paying particular attention to gender.As a first message from IRIS we argue that educational choice should be seen as a process that takes place over time – before, at, and after specific decision points. A striking feature of the choice process is that young people’s accounts of their choices are in constant change. For example, stories about their interests and aspirations in the past tend to be adjusted to fit their present perspective on their choice. In a longitudinal Danish study, for example, a young woman originally stated that she did not want to follow a course leading to teaching. In a later interview, however, after deciding to enrol in such a course after all, she stated that she had always wanted to become a teacher.The second message relates to the importance of identity in choice processes, which was a starting point for the IRIS project. Studies in IRIS demonstrate how young people negotiate their identities wi
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