Gender equality – of course! : A qualitative study on gender equal recruitment at a university

Abstract Title: Gender equality – of course! A qualitative study on gender equal recruitment at a university Author: Ingrid Öhlund Several studies show that the division of gender in Swedish universities is uneven. Since universities are important organizations where our future citizens get their education and become socialized, I found it interesting to investigate how a Swedish university handles the gender equality issue in the process of recruitment. The aim of this study was to contribute with a higher level of knowledge and understanding about the recruitment process out of a gender equality perspective. The aim was also to identify which stages of the recruitment process that was vulnerable out of a gender equality perspective. To examine this, these following questions were put: Which struc-tures may seem prohibitive when it comes to recruit gender equal? and Which stages in the pro-cess is vulnerable out of a gender equal perspective?. Weber's bureaucracy model and also institutional theory with concepts such as legitimacy were used to explore the subject. To carry out the study, a qualitative method with interviews was used and seven persons with different experiences of the recruitment process participated. The result shows that there are several vulnerable stages in the recruitment process and that there are structures that may seem prohibitive from a gender equality perspective. There is a discrepancy between how the documents present the work with gender equality and the actual behavior in the organization. Another vulnerability that emerges from the study is that knowledge and information were not communicated and spread out in the organization. There are ambiguities in the routines and uncertainties on how you can, or cannot, write the employment profile to attract candidates. The commitment to gender equal recruitment is often a matter of personal interest. However, the results show that nobody opposes the issue of equality as an important matter. The results were further analyzed by using the concepts professional bureaucracy, meritocracy, inertia, legitimacy and decoupling. Keywords: Gender equality, University, Bureaucracy, Recruitment process, Meritocrac