Engineering Gender Equality
Doktorsavhandling, 2025
This thesis studies gender equality work for faculty in technical universities. The first objective is to investigate what changes and what work are considered legible in the context of gender equality in a STEM institution. The second objective is to explore the subtle inclusion and exclusion methods that hinder gender equality work in this context. These objectives are explored through a case study of a gender equality project in a Swedish technical university and interviews with gender equality and diversity workers in Scandinavia. Following the processes of such a project contributes both practical and theoretical insights into how gender equality work is performed.
The methodological approach mixes participant observation, following, interviews, and studying texts produced by the project and other technical universities. The entry point is how this group of natural scientists and engineers attempt to implement change but the research goes on to further explore how academic organizations approach gender equality and cultural work. This approach engages science and technology studies, gender studies, and organizational studies.
This thesis is a compilation thesis made up of four articles and a comprehensive summary. A key finding in the first article is how culture and professional identity interact with cultural change work and which measures are legible for academic engineers and natural scientists. The mismatched goals of the project versus the organization for implementing change emerge in the second article, which focuses on gender equality officers, troubling trust in the organization’s commitment to gender equality. The third article explores methodological and ethical challenges when conducting critical social sciences research, studying up, studying your own organization, and being funded by your informants. The fourth and final article investigates how gender equality and diversity workers in technical universities in Scandinavia experience their roles. The comprehensive summary provides an overview of the background of the gender equality project and elaborates on theoretical and methodological questions and findings from the research project.
The methodological approach mixes participant observation, following, interviews, and studying texts produced by the project and other technical universities. The entry point is how this group of natural scientists and engineers attempt to implement change but the research goes on to further explore how academic organizations approach gender equality and cultural work. This approach engages science and technology studies, gender studies, and organizational studies.
This thesis is a compilation thesis made up of four articles and a comprehensive summary. A key finding in the first article is how culture and professional identity interact with cultural change work and which measures are legible for academic engineers and natural scientists. The mismatched goals of the project versus the organization for implementing change emerge in the second article, which focuses on gender equality officers, troubling trust in the organization’s commitment to gender equality. The third article explores methodological and ethical challenges when conducting critical social sciences research, studying up, studying your own organization, and being funded by your informants. The fourth and final article investigates how gender equality and diversity workers in technical universities in Scandinavia experience their roles. The comprehensive summary provides an overview of the background of the gender equality project and elaborates on theoretical and methodological questions and findings from the research project.
STS
engineering culture
Diversity
feminist technoscience
gender studies
DEI
gender equality
Vasa C, Vera Sandbergs allé 8
Opponent: Prof. Maria Udén, Luleå Tekniska Högskola
Författare
Kai Lo Andersson
Chalmers, Teknikens ekonomi och organisation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy
The Sole Engineering Genius: A Professional Identity Not Fit for the Purpose of Gender Equality Projects
Engineering Studies,;Vol. 15(2023)
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift
Andersson, K. L (2025). Doubting commitment— Uncovering Window dressing in a Technical university
Andersson, K. L. (2025). Weapons of Ethical Destruction: Feminist Research Ethics When Studying Up
Andersson, K. L. (2025) From Gender Equality to Inclusive Diversity? Discourses among Equality Workers in Scandinavia
Ojämställdhet i akademin har länge varit ett hett debatterat ämne och något Sverige, med andra länder, satsat mycket resurser på att motverka. Trots ökningar av kvinnliga studenter är manliga forskare inom naturvetenskap och teknik överrepresenterade.
Avhandlingen Engineering Gender Equality utforskar ett jämställdhetsprojekt på en svensk teknisk högskola med en stor budget och större mål: ett tekniskt universitet utan kulturella hinder för kvinnor och en fördubbling av kvinnliga professorer. Genom fyra artiklar analyseras hur just kulturella hinder kan vara oerhört komplexa och svåra att förändra gällande jämställdhet och mångfald. Hur ingenjörer och tekniska universitet gör jämställdhetsarbete är centralt i avhandlingen, vad som ses som möjligt och metoderna dit avslöjar underliggande idéer om jämställdhet, kön och kultur.
Jämställdhetsarbetet på det studerade universitetet påverkades av kulturella och organisatoriska strukturer. Organisatoriskt så placerades jämställdhetsprojektet utanför det vanliga jämställdhetsarbetet med jämställdhetsintegrering. Målen för projektet, och universitetet i stort, följdes inte upp med konsekvenser vid bristande framsteg trots att både projektdeltagare och jämställdhetsombud ville hålla chefer och ledare ansvariga. Kulturellt så påverkas jämställdhetsarbete av normer, framför allt gällande kön, men även hur just kultur förstås. I avhandlingen argumenterar jag att lokala kulturer behöver analyseras för att förstå strukturer för ojämställdhet.
Avhandlingen Engineering Gender Equality utforskar ett jämställdhetsprojekt på en svensk teknisk högskola med en stor budget och större mål: ett tekniskt universitet utan kulturella hinder för kvinnor och en fördubbling av kvinnliga professorer. Genom fyra artiklar analyseras hur just kulturella hinder kan vara oerhört komplexa och svåra att förändra gällande jämställdhet och mångfald. Hur ingenjörer och tekniska universitet gör jämställdhetsarbete är centralt i avhandlingen, vad som ses som möjligt och metoderna dit avslöjar underliggande idéer om jämställdhet, kön och kultur.
Jämställdhetsarbetet på det studerade universitetet påverkades av kulturella och organisatoriska strukturer. Organisatoriskt så placerades jämställdhetsprojektet utanför det vanliga jämställdhetsarbetet med jämställdhetsintegrering. Målen för projektet, och universitetet i stort, följdes inte upp med konsekvenser vid bristande framsteg trots att både projektdeltagare och jämställdhetsombud ville hålla chefer och ledare ansvariga. Kulturellt så påverkas jämställdhetsarbete av normer, framför allt gällande kön, men även hur just kultur förstås. I avhandlingen argumenterar jag att lokala kulturer behöver analyseras för att förstå strukturer för ojämställdhet.
Gender inequality in academia has long been a hotly debated issue. Like many other countries, Sweden has invested significant resources to counter it. Despite an increase in female students, male researchers in science and engineering remain overrepresented.
The dissertation Engineering Gender Equality explores a gender equality project at a Swedish technical university with a large budget and ambitious goals: a technical university free from cultural barriers for women and a doubling of female professors. Through four articles, the thesis analyzes how cultural barriers can be extremely complex and difficult to change in relation to gender equality and diversity. How engineers and technical universities approach gender equality is central to the dissertation. What is seen as possible and the methods chosen reveal underlying ideas about gender, equality, and culture.
The project was shaped by cultural and organizational structures. Organizationally, it was placed outside regular gender mainstreaming work. Its goals, and those of the university, were not followed up with consequences when progress stalled, even though both project members and equality officers wanted to hold managers accountable. Culturally, work was influenced by norms, especially around gender, but also by how culture itself is understood. The dissertation argues that local cultures must be analyzed to understand the structures behind inequality
The dissertation Engineering Gender Equality explores a gender equality project at a Swedish technical university with a large budget and ambitious goals: a technical university free from cultural barriers for women and a doubling of female professors. Through four articles, the thesis analyzes how cultural barriers can be extremely complex and difficult to change in relation to gender equality and diversity. How engineers and technical universities approach gender equality is central to the dissertation. What is seen as possible and the methods chosen reveal underlying ideas about gender, equality, and culture.
The project was shaped by cultural and organizational structures. Organizationally, it was placed outside regular gender mainstreaming work. Its goals, and those of the university, were not followed up with consequences when progress stalled, even though both project members and equality officers wanted to hold managers accountable. Culturally, work was influenced by norms, especially around gender, but also by how culture itself is understood. The dissertation argues that local cultures must be analyzed to understand the structures behind inequality
Jämställdhet för excellens (Genie)
Stiftelsen Chalmers tekniska högskola, 2019-01-01 -- 2028-12-31.
Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)
Socialantropologi
Teknik och samhälle
Genusstudier
ISBN
978-91-8103-201-7
Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie: 5659
Utgivare
Chalmers