Where have all the women gone? Gender perspective on the Regional Growth Agreements – a new Swedish regional policy

• The Swedish government have recently introduced a new element of industrial policy into a bill on regional policy. Swedish regions were invited to design and negotiate Regional Growth Agreements (RGAs) with the Ministry of Industry. In her chapter Ursula Hård describes and analyses the Regional Growth Agreements from a gender perspective. These agreements are regarded by the Swedish Government as the major instruments of what is referred to as "a new regional policy". The empirical data is mainly based on interviews with County Experts in Gender Equality and Regional Resource Centres for Women in Sweden's 21 counties, conducted by Ursula Hård in the spring of the year 2000.There are two important conclusions. Firstly, that the different regions have not succeeded in integrating a gender equality perspective within the Regional Growth Agreements, despite the declared intentions and expectations of the Swedish Government. Secondly, even though one of the purposes with the notions of "a new regional policy" is to bring in as partners those groups and neworks who previously have had little or no part and influence in regional development and growth issues, the different regions have scarcely succeeded in doing this.For an extended version of Ursula Hård's chapter in Swedish see; Arbetsliv i omvandling / Work Life in Transition 2005:8

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Keyword

regional growth

regional politics

Northern Europe

EU

rural

rural devolpment

countryside

social economy

co-operations

regional growth agreements

gender

gender equality

Sweden

County Adminstrative Board

organization

work

network

empowerment

entrepreneurship

Resource Center for Women

Experts on gender equality issues

regional utveckling

arbetsmarknadspolitik

ekonomiska aspekter

social ekonomi

kooperativ

EU

landsbygdsutveckling

entreprenörer

nätverk

norra Europa

jämställdhet

jämställdhetsarbete

kön

genus

tillväxt

avtal

tillväxtavtal

Länsexperter i jämställdhet

ResursCentra för kvinnor

ekonomisk historia

Economic History

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kap (subject category)