Gender equality review of collective agreements - developing the Swedish model together

Purpose and goal

The project has reached it´s goal and developed a method to integrate gender equality in collective agreements and also tested the method on three different collective agreements. In a longer perspective we hope that results from the project will contribute to more gender equal and innovative organizations and workplaces.

Expected results and effects

The project has resulted in a guide that will be communicated to a wide range of unions and employer´s organizations. We´ve created new and innovative ways that gender equality can be integrated in the collective agreements and how the agreements can be analyzed through this perspective. The process has been informative and given new ideas to the representatives from unions and employers ‘organizations that have taken part of the project. In the long run we hope the results will lead to actual changes in the collective agreements and in that way to a more gender equal labor market.

Planned approach and implementation

Together with representatives from unions, employers ‘organizations and experts in gender equality we have created a guide to new and innovative ways in which collective agreements can be used to promote gender equality. By using norm criticism as a method, we´ve shown that when you do not have a gender perspective in negotiation of collective agreements you risk supporting norms that lead to gender inequality. The guide is new for it´s kind and will therefor fill a gap in the process of negotiating collective agreements for about four million employees.