This article contributes new insights into the spatiality of gender relations in military work and organizations, focusing specifically on the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). It examines the unique and longstanding practice of gender-mixed rooms, which have served as the standard way of lodging soldiers in Sweden for decades. Drawing on a combination of in-depth interviews, archival research, and document analysis, the study follows the process of making room for women, tracing back to the early 1980s when the first women enrolled in the SAF. The findings demonstrate that gender-mixed rooms have played a pivotal role in shaping both gender relations and institutional norms within the SAF. We argue that women's inclusion into the soldier collective has been simultanously facilitated and conditioned by this spatial arrangement. The case underscores the need to closely examine both the “how” and the “where” of gender equality initiatives when striving to foster more inclusive organizations.

This article contributes empirical knowledge about the shifting ways in which the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) has articulated and addressed ‘the uniform issue’, that is, matters concerning servicewomen’s access to adequate uniforms and other equipment, since the 1980s. Drawing on analytical tools employed within post-structural policy analysis, we demonstrate how ‘the uniform issue’ has gone from being articulated as a problem for servicewomen, and to be solved by servicewomen, to a problem for the SAF in its pursuit to become an attractive employer and a legitimate public authority. By shedding light on how ‘the uniform issue’ has been problematized in shifting ways since Swedish women first were allowed to serve in all military positions, this article also contributes important insights into broader scholarly debates about workplace discrimination, gender equality, and gendered occupational identities in military work.

Purpose

This article explores the analytical gains of what we refer to as “awkward ethnography.” How might our understanding of organizational phenomena benefit from those unexpected moments when our observations are laughed at, when our questions cause discomfort, or when we feel like a failure? While such instances seem to be an inherent aspect of organizational ethnography, they are often silenced or camouflaged by claims of intentionality. This article takes the opposite approach, arguing for the analytical value of awkwardness.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on their respective ethnographic fieldwork in the Danish and Swedish armed forces. Based on observations, participation and interviews in two military units, the analysis focuses on situations that rarely find their way into final research publications. These will be explored as analytically productive material that can provide crucial insights into the organizational context studied.

Findings

The authors’ analysis demonstrates that awkward situations that arise during ethnographic work not only bring about unforeseen insights; they also enable vital analytical opportunities for discovering silent knowledge in the organization which researchers might otherwise not have considered to inquire about or understood the gravity of.

Research limitations/implications

Implied in the suggested methodological approach for ethnographers is an acceptance of awkward situations as productive encounters. This means doing away with ideals for (ethnographic) knowledge production steered by notions of objectivity, instead embracing the affective dimensions of fieldwork.

Originality/value

This research addresses a key, and often silenced, aspect of ethnographic fieldwork, and stresses the unique value of the unintended and unexpected when doing ethnography.

Flera decennier efter att kvinnor formellt fick tillträde till polisyrket ochofficersyrket är de fortfarande starkt mansdominerade både i antal ochi symbolisk mening. Med hjälp av teorier och begrepp från genus- ochorganisationsforskning visar detta kapitel hur genusrelationer på olikasätt formar kvinnors och mäns arbetsvillkor inom polisen och försvaret.Vad händer med synen på kvinnors och mäns plats i och bidrag tillprofessionen i mötet mellan organisationens normer och omvärldenskrav på ett mer jämställt arbetsliv?

The inclusion of women into military ranks, combat units and special operation forces has proven controversial for decades. Should women be allowed to train as conscripts, to carry weapons in wartime, or to command military units? And if so, would they automatically be considered members of the military profession? In this chapter, we explore arguments about the inclusion of women in military work, unfolding how the military profession and its boundaries are, and have been, negotiated, protected and challenged in relation to gender.

Denna artikel fokuserar på yrkesverksamma som arbetar med att stötta män som utsatts för våld i en nära relation, och analyserar de terapeutiska strate-gier som de utvecklar i relation till denna grupp av klienter. Studien baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som arbetar i en stödverksam-het för hbtq-personer, ett kriscenter för män och en sjukhusklinik. Analysen visar att informanterna ser stora likheter med erfarenheterna hos våldsut-satta män, jämfört med utsatta kvinnor. De har dock ett behov av terapeu-tiska strategier riktade specifikt till män. I analysen beskrivs benämnandets strategi, vikten av att reparera förtroende och att arbeta med skamreduktion.

This article focuses on professionals who work to support men exposed to partner violence, analyzing the therapeutic strategies that they develop in relation to this specific group of clients. The study is based on semi-struc-tured interviews with professionals from an LGBT support center, a crisis center for men, and a hospital clinic. The analysis shows that informants see many similarities between men ́s experiences of abuse and those of abused women. They do however see a need for therapeutic strategies aimed spe-cifically at men. The analysis describes strategies of naming the violence, repairing trust and shame reduction.   

This article presents a case study about how norms relating to masculinity, sexuality and reproduction were produced in relation to the healthy, ailing, or aging prostate in early twentieth century medicine. It shows how the ailing prostate tied in with norms about healthy, abnormal or illicit sexual and reproductive practices. Engaging with insights from the history of medicine, feminist science studies, and men and masculinity studies, it highlights how the prostate became a diagnostic catch-all for a wide range of physical and mental conditions, producing demarcations between femininity and masculinity, manliness and unmanliness, health and illness, and moral and vice.

This article explores how women, men, and gender equality in the military have been debated, made sense of, regulated, and dealt with in Swedish contemporary history. It takes its empirical point of departure in 1965, when the issue of military conscription for women was first raised in Sweden, and ends with the implementation of so called gender-neutral conscription in 2018. The study is based on a wide range of sources, collected through a combination of extensive archival work, ethnographic studies, and interviews. The analysis shows how men have been the standard against which women were measured throughout the period studied. Women service members were simultaneously perceived both as a problem and as a solution to a range of problems in the organisation. Women’s ‘different’ bodies were considered problematic, while staff shortages and demands for specific personnel qualities rendered the ‘woman soldier’ a solution, in particular in relation to international missions.

Trots goda intentioner hos vårdpersonal upplever patienter ofta möten i vården som misslyckade. Det kan vara möten där patienten har fått en helt korrekt medicinsk behandling, men av andra anledningar upplever sig kränkt eller överkörd. Ofta lägger vårdgivare inte ens märke till att det sker. Om patienten i efterhand försöker få upprättelse är det heller inte säkert att ett sådant samtal når sitt syfte. Ämnet kränkningar i vården är tabubelagt och känslomässigt laddat. För att ge legitimitet åt insatser att hjälpa personal att motverka kränkningar behövs därför en god kunskapsbas.

Med denna utgångspunkt startades för 20 år sedan ett nytt forskningsfält om kränkningar i vården vid enheten för genus och medicin, Linköpings universitet. I denna artikel redovisar forskargruppen några av sina resultat och lärdomar.

Patients’ experience of abuse in health care (AHC) is common, and may cause long-lasting suffering. In Sweden, lifetime prevalence is estimated at 20 per cent among female patients and 8 per cent among male patients, and a background of other abuse is a risk factor. Most health care staff have experience of patients who have been abused, but the topic is surrounded by silence from both patients and caregivers. Models for training staff in groups have been evaluated and a more proactive stance can be fostered. Department heads and health care authorities are responsible for providing staff with options to counteract AHC. Caregivers need training in how to carry out consultations with patients who say they have been abused in health care, and this training should be included in efforts to increase quality of care. Changes are within reach but educational efforts are urgent.