Jämställdhetsintegrering vid svenska universitet och högskolor. Det politiska uppdraget återspeglat i lärosätenas planer

Abstract

Gender Mainstreaming in Swedish Higher Education: the political directive reflected in institutional plans. The Swedish government’s latest reform of gender inequality in higher education set out to strengthen gender mainstreaming. Following this reform, the Swedish higher education institutions established gender mainstreaming plans for 2017-2019. In this article, we analyse and discuss the content of these plans, focusing on how they describe the organisation of gender mainstreaming, the understanding of gender inequality as a problem, and the planned activities to achieve gender mainstreaming. Drawing on interpretative frame theory, we identify challenges with the aims and scopes of these plans and the definitions they employ, e.g. in attempts to merge gender mainstreaming with the already on-going equal opportunity work based on the Swedish Discrimination Act. We conclude that many institutions have adopted an approach to gender mainstreaming that has the potential for transformation through long-term and sustainable cultural and structural change. To what extent the plans will be fully implemented, however, remains to be investigated, and depends on the organisation of work, commitment of leaders, and legitimacy of practitioners.