’Doing Gender’ in a Local and Regional Context : An Innovative Process of Mainstreaming Gender Equality

Sustainable regional and business development depends on access to people motivated to invest their lives in a region and its enterprise. However in a time of demographical changes, urbanisation and new values on life and work among the next generation, the issue of attractiveness is crucial for both a region and its workplaces. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a process methodology for increased gender awareness in an enterprise and to emphasise the relationship between organisational and regional de- velopment. In this context, we use the innovative combination of the two scientific fields, gender and action-research in a collaborative project between researchers and an engineering enterprise in a semi-rural area of Sweden. This collaboration aims for a more gender mainstreamed organisation so as to retain and attract the most suitable labour for the future. During the long-term process, the employer and employees be- came more conscious of the importance of gender-equal issues; a factor we believe to be an important prerequisite of sustainable growth.