Gender equality and health experiences : workplace patterns in Northern Sweden

• Main Author: Elwér, Sofia
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Allmänmedicin 2013
• Subjects: gender equality; workplace; health experiences; focus groups; cluster analysis; gender; work environment; gender regimes; Public Health; Global Health; Social Medicine and Epidemiology; Folkhälsovetenskap; global hälsa; socialmedicin och epidemiologi; Norra Sverige; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-63973

Gendered practices of working life create gender inequalities through horizontal and vertical gender segregation in work, which may lead to gender inequalities in health experiences. The workplace is an important part of the social circumstances under which health opportunities and constraints are shaped. The workplace has also been identified as an important arena for gender constructions. Still, there is a lack of research about the relations between workplace gender equality and health experiences. The aim of this thesis was to explore gender equality and health experiences in a workplace setting. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. In the qualitative studies all caregiving staff at two establishments providing care for elderly was invited to participate in focus groups (Papers I & II). A moderator led 14 focusgroup discussions. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the transcribed discussions. For the quantitative studies questionnaire data from the Northern Swedish Cohort (n=836) were analysed and supplemented with register data about the participants’ workplaces. The register data were used to stratify the workplaces according to gender composition (paper IV) and to create gender equality indicators of the number of women and men at the workplace, education, salary and parental leave (Paper III). Cluster analysis was used to identify patterns of gender equality at the workplaces. Logistic regression analysis, adjusting for individual socio-demographics and previous psychological distress, were used to analyse psychological distress in relation to both clusters and gender compositions. This thesis identifies various workplace patterns of gender equality and how they are related to health experiences. The results from the focus group study showed that workplace stressors had a structural character, often originating from societal processes outside the own organization, whereas health resources had a relational character and were constructed within the organization (paper I). Gender ...