TY - JOUR

T1 - What is the ‘problem’ of gender inequality represented to be in the Swedish forest sector?

AU - Ville, Alizée

AU - Wong, Grace

AU - Aceituno, Amanda Jiménez

AU - Downing, Andrea

AU - Karambiri, Mawa

AU - Brockhaus, Maria

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2023/2/1

Y1 - 2023/2/1

N2 - Gender equality in natural resource management is a matter of sustainability and democracy for Sweden's government, however the country's forest remains a highly gender-segregated sector. We examine how gender inequality is problematized within Swedish forest and rural policy documents using the What's the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach. We build on previous efforts to investigate gender inequality in the forest sector by expanding the critical analysis to rural development policy. We conduct interviews with forest experts, owners, and practitioners to shed light on where there are gaps within the policy representations and uncover alternative policy options that are presented. Our findings corroborate that gender inequality is represented to be a technical problem, with policy measures aiming to increase the number of women within a forest sector that continues to maintain rigid conceptions about forestry production values. While there are claims of success in the increase of women within the sector in aggregate, there is little change in the numbers of women in decision-making positions. Forest policy relies upon women to bring growth and sustainability to the forest industry, while rural policy expects women to halt rural population decline. Our findings suggest that merely trying to fit more women into a mold that has been shaped for and by inflexible forestry and masculine values is an impediment not only to gender equality but also to the inclusion of other social groups and ideas in the changing rural landscapes of Sweden.

AB - Gender equality in natural resource management is a matter of sustainability and democracy for Sweden's government, however the country's forest remains a highly gender-segregated sector. We examine how gender inequality is problematized within Swedish forest and rural policy documents using the What's the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach. We build on previous efforts to investigate gender inequality in the forest sector by expanding the critical analysis to rural development policy. We conduct interviews with forest experts, owners, and practitioners to shed light on where there are gaps within the policy representations and uncover alternative policy options that are presented. Our findings corroborate that gender inequality is represented to be a technical problem, with policy measures aiming to increase the number of women within a forest sector that continues to maintain rigid conceptions about forestry production values. While there are claims of success in the increase of women within the sector in aggregate, there is little change in the numbers of women in decision-making positions. Forest policy relies upon women to bring growth and sustainability to the forest industry, while rural policy expects women to halt rural population decline. Our findings suggest that merely trying to fit more women into a mold that has been shaped for and by inflexible forestry and masculine values is an impediment not only to gender equality but also to the inclusion of other social groups and ideas in the changing rural landscapes of Sweden.

KW - Critical policy analysis

KW - Forest policy

KW - Gender inequality

KW - Rural development

KW - Sweden

KW - Environmental planning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143528710&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/44d01c4d-cf20-3374-8603-a7f8617a7de4/

U2 - 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.11.013

DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.11.013

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85143528710

VL - 140

SP - 46

EP - 55

JO - Environmental Science and Policy

JF - Environmental Science and Policy

SN - 1462-9011

ER -