Med passionen som drivkraft

En intersektionell analys av genusvetenskap, de studerande och arbetslivet

Abstract

Based on a national Swedish survey among former gender studies students followed by focus group interviews, this article investigates the students’ perspectives on gender studies and work. We ask how they understand their education in between generic critical knowledge and the labor market. How can the students’ backgrounds and talk about gender studies and work be understood intersectionally? What does it mean for the future of gender studies? The analysis is based on intersectional subject positions as developed by Dorthe Staunæss (2003) and compares the results with other critical feminist studies of higher education (Ahmed 2012; Berggren 2006; Mählck 2013; Orupabo 2014). The analytical method uses the concepts “gap” (Åse 2000), ”in sync” (Staunæss 2010) and “comfortable” (Ahmed 2010) in order to understand the contradicting results of the survey and talk in the focus groups. In our analysis we discuss the gaps the students identify between their studies and their experiences of finding work on the labor market as both significant for the humanities and social sciences in general and as specific for gender studies. The gender studies students are however employed and find their education useful on the labor market, a success that they also ascribe (partly) to their privileged background in terms of class and ethnicity. Among the participants persons with academically educated parents and parents born in Sweden were over-represented. The article also discusses what this skewed participation in gender studies education may mean for the discipline and the labor market for gender studies students. Finally it proposes four directions for the future development of gender studies.