Genus och arbete: vad berättar forskningen från 1990-talet?

Abstract

In this article I discuss parts of tny book Gender in and as Organization. An Overview of Swedish Research on Work & Gender. The overall aim of the book is to describe and analyze research on gender and work in organizations in Sweden during the 1990s and it focuses in particular on six domains of research. This article builds on three of these: 1) Structural Transformation, 2) Leadership and 3) Technology and Organization. Studies of structural transformation usually focus on more encompassing changes in the organization of production, such as the transformation of the public sector in the 1990s, as well as on more minor themes such as the closing down of local industries. On a general level, the studies show that men become unemployed less frequently and furthermore that they have greater opportunities to get new permanent jobs in times of structural change. The opportunities for women to get new jobs seem dependent on the local labour märket and to what degree it can offer traditional women's jobs in the public sector. In the research on leadership, studies show that women seldom become leaders/ managers in the private sector. Only 17 percent of the leaders in the private sector were women in 1999. Studies of the development in the public sector show a change from 29 percent of women leaders in 1990 to 51 percent in 1999. Qualitatively oriented studies provide explanations for these figures. The equal opportunity strategies and the law against sex discrimination in employment seem to have had a more profound impact in the public organizations - a state of affairs which most probably has its roots in the close connection between these organizations and "the state". The overall results from research on technology and organization show that in most organizations, when new technology and/or new ways of organizing work are introduced, gender regimes are resistant to change. Initially some changes due to the gender division of labour can be seen, but after only a short period of time most organizations go back to "normal", i.e. an organization with a traditional and stereotypical gendered division of labour.