Tillgång till mänskliga resurser är avgörande för många företags långsiktiga utveckling och överlevnad. Demografiska förändringar och tecken på ökade svårigheter att rekrytera personal leder till att allt fler verksamheter måste reflektera över sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke i syfte att behålla och attrahera rätt personal. Inte bara demografiska förändringar utan även könssegregerade strukturera kan försvåra detta. Segregering, traditioner och stereotypa förhållningsätt påverkar individers utbildnings- och yrkesval vilket begränsar tillgången till kompetens.

Med finansiering från VINNOVA för tillämpad genusforskning inledde en forskargrupp och ett ingenjörsföretag i Dalarna, 2009, ett samarbete för att gemensamt utveckla kunskap om hur en verksamhet kan bli mer attraktiv i syfte att underlätta framtida kompetensförsörjning utifrån ett genusperspektiv. De erfarenheter och frågeställningar som samarbetet genererade lade grund till denna avhandling. Syftet med avhandlingen är att öka den vetenskapliga kunskapen om hur begreppet arbetsgivarvarumärke kan utvecklas ur ett genusperspektiv för att öka arbetsgivares förmåga att rekrytera och behålla kompetent personal oavsett kön.

För att besvara avhandlingens frågeställningar har olika vetenskapsområden kombinerats: Teorier om varumärke, arbetsgivarvarumärke, genusvetenskap och förändringsprocesser har varit grundläggande. Från det genusvetenskapliga fältet har främst begreppet ”doing gender” (göra kön) varit centralt för att förstå hur genus kan ses som ett vardagligt görande i organisationer. Även teorier om hållbara förändringsprocesser och utvecklingsprogram har använts för att öka förståelsen för organisering, ansvarsfördelning och utveckling av ett långsiktigt hållbart arbetsgivarvarumärke. Metoden för samverkan med det studerade företaget byggde på aktionsforskning med en abduktiv ansats där parterna gemensamt planerade och genomförde insatser. För att besvara de frågeställningar som uppstod i samarbetet med företaget användes forskningsdatabaser för att ta fram underlag för litteraturstudier.

Avhandlingen bidrar med en vetenskaplig analys av hur ett genusperspektiv praktiskt och teoretiskt kan integreras i processen för utveckling av ett attraktivt arbete. Dessutom analyseras förslag på hur ansvarsfördelning och organisering kan utformas i en långsiktigt hållbar utvecklingsprocess för ett arbetsgivarvarumärke. 

Despite a global financial crisis, the concept Employer Branding became the point of departure for an interactive collaboration between an engineering company and a research team. When reviewing academic literature the conclusion was that very few articles combine the concepts of employer brand and gender equality. This article contributes theoretically to promote and examine arguments for the potential of adopting a gender perspective when developing an employer brand and when compiling the employer value propositioning. The article intends to inspire organizations to use a gender perspective when developing the employer value proposition in order to promote propositions reflecting the organization. It will also open avenues for further research by synthesizing the two fields.

Sustainable regional and business development depends on access to people motivated to invest their lives in a region and its enterprise. However in a time of demographical changes, urbanisation and new values on life and work among the next generation, the issue of attractiveness is crucial for both a region and its workplaces. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a process methodology for increased gender awareness in an enterprise and to emphasise the relationship between organisational and regional de- velopment. In this context, we use the innovative combination of the two scientific fields, gender and action-research in a collaborative project between researchers and an engineering enterprise in a semi-rural area of Sweden. This collaboration aims for a more gender mainstreamed organisation so as to retain and attract the most suitable labour for the future. During the long-term process, the employer and employees became more conscious of the importance of gender-equal issues; a factor we believe to be an important prerequisite of sustainable growth. 

Access to human resources is a crucial factor in most cases of business and regional development. Due to demographical changes, urbanization and new values among the next generation, the competition to find the right workforce is likely to increase. Reports have stressed that the difficulties for companies to find the right labor can become a hindrance to sustainable business and regional development. Considering the low proportion of women in the field of engineering, only 20 percent, one must ask; Why are WE (Works in Engineering) not more attractive for women? The purpose of this thesis is to describe the collaboration between an expanding enterprise in a semirural area and a gender research project, from three different perspectives in order to find some answers for the overarching question. In the first paper, the purpose is to describe and analyze the creation of a process model for gender awareness within an enterprise. The second paper will, with the same empirical data, focus on the interdependence between enterprise and region. Finally, the last paper, written for a conference in India, addressing readers unfamiliar with the gender equality issue in the Swedish context, describes how a male facilitator combines disclosing personal life experiences with other methods, as a strategy to inspire men to consider a gender perspective, to use gender glasses. Gender equality has been a topic on the political agenda in Sweden for a long time. Although much progress has been made, many obstructive structures remain. Sweden is one of the European countries that have the highest participation rate for women in the labor force. However, the labor market is highly gender-segregated, both horizontally, which refers to the concentration of women and men in different types of jobs, and vertically, the concentration of women and men in different jobtasks and positions. Due to this background, the innovation system, Triple Steelix, was granted funding by VINNOVA for the project “Gender Perspective for Attractive Work”, in the fall of 2008. The purpose of the research project was to develop methods and knowledge that would contribute to increased gender awareness in order for employers to become more attractive to current and potential staff. The framework for the collaboration is action research in combination with feminist theory, the concept of “doing gender”, theories of masculinity, and attractive work theories. Different approaches and methods, such as analogies, anecdotes, and pictures, have been used during workshops with the organization, in order to nourish the joint learning process.Findings are that in an industrial environment with an “engineering discourse”,driven by a technical-economic rationality that prioritizes market demands, gender issues are not often seen as a parameter for sustainable business or regional development. Nevertheless, the project demonstrates that with an interactive approach and an open dialogue that considers the company's needs, arguments, and intervention for more gender-equal workplaces do not necessarily meet resistance. In this case, the concept of employer brand was the admission ticket for the collaboration. The combination of different participatory methods that were adapted to the context made it possible to counter resistance from individuals and to discuss gender from different perspectives and ways of reasoning. Another conclusion is that when launching long-term transformational processes in an organization, gender should not remain a “non-issue”. When gender issues are integrated, it will contribute to examining the organization from a new perspective regarding issues such as power, symbols, and relations. In the described collaboration, gender perspective was integrated and the enterprise became more aware of gender issues as an important component of strengthening the employer brand. The principle of the described process model can probably be used in similar cases if adapted to a local context.

Regardless of a long tradition of legislation, policymaking and practical achievements, the issues ofgender equality and of the segregated labor market still remain a matter of concern in Sweden. Thispaper describes a collaborative process between a research project and an engineering enterprise.It describes the point of departure, based on the concept of employer brand, of a long-term changeprocess and the different phases and activities during an intensive period 2009. The collaborationaimed to develop innovative methods, and to apply them in order to achieve increased genderawareness, and thereby to be able to retain and attract the best labor for tomorrow. Differentapproaches and methods as analogies, anecdotes, and pictures were used to nourish the process.Findings showed that the interactive process contributed to increased awareness. During the processthe enterprise became more conscious of the potential of being a gender equal employer

Sustainable regional and business development depends on the access to people motivated to invest their lives in the region and the enterprises. But in a time of demographical changes, urbanization and new values regarding life and work among the next generation the issue of being attractive is crucial for both a region and enterprises. This paper describes the interactive collaboration between a research project and an enterprise in a semirural area in Sweden. A collaboration aiming for a more gender mainstreamed organization in order to retain and attract the best-suited labor for tomorrow. During the long term process the enterprise became more conscious of being a gender equal employer. The interaction gave the enterprise a platform for continued development with gender equality as an important element in developing a strong employer brand.