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ABSTRACT
This paper explores how workers in the women-dominated public sector in Sweden speak about and make sense of gender and intragroup conflict and the consequences of this way of thinking and acting for gender equality at work. Using qualitative interviews with 26 first-level managers and employees, we introduce an analytical framework that employs critical discourse psychology and the conceptualization of a postfeminist sensibility at work. We identified three competing meanings (postfeminist storylines) of gender and intragroup conflict: Supporting the gendered meanings of conflict, Unawareness of conflict’s gendered meanings and Counteracting the gendered meanings of conflict. The welfare workers acknowledged the role of gender in intragroup conflicts but, paradoxically, constructed their own workplaces as gender neutral, without inequalities related to gender. We interpret these three postfeminist storylines as coping strategies; that is, as ways to make sense of the false promise of gender egalitarianism that characterizes the Swedish labour market.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the welfare workers who took part in this project, who so generously engaged with us and shared their experiences of gender and conflicts in their workplaces. We also thank Elin Kvist for conducting the interviews together with Britt-Inger, and Elin and Susanne Tafvelin for being part of the larger research project, and being valuable discussants throughout the process. Additionally, we want to thank Eva Magnusson for her support and constructive reading of the manuscripts. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Forte, which funded the research project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethical approval
The study was approved by The Regional Ethical Review Board at Umeå University, Sweden, dnr. 2017/55-31.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Britt-Inger Keisu
Britt-Inger Keisu is an associate professor of Sociology and is employed as a senior lecturer. She works as head of department at Umeå Centre for Gender Studies. Her main research interest is focused at the intersection of gender and organization theory. Currently, she manages the research project: Fit for fight? A study of conflict and mental health in women-dominated workplaces from a gender perspective. The relationship between conflicts, gender and well-being is explained by differences in working conditions, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Keisu has participated in several research projects, has received research grants and has published her work in prestigious journals, including Educational Research and BMC Health Services Research.
Helene Brodin
Helene Brodin holds a PhD in Economic History and is associate professor of Social Work at Stockholm University. Her main research interests concern gender, care policies and care work, with a special focus on how New Public Management (NPM) has affected working conditions and the distribution of services in the welfare sector. She has participated in several national and international projects. Currently, she leads the project Workplace violence in home-based social services: Approaches, responses and reporting of client-initiated threats and violence in four different fields of social work, funded by Forte. Brodin has published her work widely, including in journals, e.g. Gender, Work and Organization.