
13 February 2023
New research report on the government's crisis support
According to a new report from Luleå University of Technology about public efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government must become better at taking environmental, climate and gender equality goals into account in its crisis support.
“We must integrate these parameters into our crisis planning in advance. Once the crisis is here, there is no time for it. Otherwise, there is a risk that the government's crisis support reinforces existing inequality and undermines environmental and climate work”, says Jeaneth Johansson, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation and one of the researchers behind the report.
The basis for the report consists of interviews and workshops with employees at Region Värmland, Incubatorn Bizmaker, the Equality Agency, the Swedish Tax Agency and The Sweidsh Agency for Growth Policy Analysis who work with gender equality or environmental issues.
Lot of focus on economics
The interview responses showed that organizations put a lot of focus on financial issues, that those who work with equality and sustainability issues do not meet and share knowledge with each other, and that there is no follow-up of the effects of the crisis support on equality and sustainability.
“Organizations exhibit a kind of silo mentality in these matters. It is problematic because it involves complex problems that require a diversity of perspectives in order to be managed”, says Jeaneth Johansson.
The report further states that there is a lack of clear routines and that the organizations need skills development in data collection and data analysis of issues affecting gender equality and sustainability.
“It is important to understand how sustainability and gender equality work together and how to allocate resources in order to make the right decision”, says Jeaneth Johansson.
Within the framework of the project, the researchers have developed a tool to make the organizations better prepared for the next crisis. The tool contains, among other things, a question package that will make the organizations aware of what they need to improve.
“The tool has a norm-critical and norm-creative perspective that helps organizations identify work routines in need to be changed”, says Kristina Johansson, who is a university lecturer in Human Work Science.
Skewed distribution between men and women
The report contains a case study carried out of how the short-term support has been applied during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study shows that there is a skewed distribution between men and women, which is primarily due to the fact that support has been paid to male-dominated and gender-balanced industries to a far greater extent than to female-dominated industries.
“It is not the short-term support in itself that creates economic inequality. But when support that is designed based on seemingly gender-neutral assumptions about work and employment in male-dominated industries is applied to a working life that is de facto segregated, existing patterns of inequality are reinforced”, says Kristina Johansson, who conducted the study.
The research project "RIKARE Crisis Support" has been carried out by Luleå University of Technology and RISE in collaboration with Region Värmland, the Agency for Equality and Bizmaker in the years 2021 and 2022 with funding from Formas.
Contact
Jeaneth Johansson
Kristina Johansson
- Associate Professor
- 0920-492943
- kristina.johansson@ltu.se
- Kristina Johansson
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