IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v31y2024i3p1092-1112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The significance of feminist infrastructure: #MeToo in the construction industry and the green industry in Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • Karin Hansson
  • Hillevi Ganetz
  • Malin Sveningsson

Abstract

To better understand the interplay between digital activism and feminist infrastructure, this study investigates #MeToo activism in the Swedish construction industry and green industry. Both are industries in transition characterized by a dissonance between formal incentives, that encourage women and others to work in environments previously dominated by white men, and the informal power structures hosting a toxic masculinity. Based on media texts and interviews with key persons from the industries, the article situates #MeToo in a local context and shows how it was embedded in a supportive social, cultural, and technical infrastructure. In both industries, at the time of #MeToo this feminist infrastructure was already in place consisting of: an awareness of the problem of sexual harassment and abuse, knowledge of feminist explanatory models, established feminist online networks, and a supportive feminist culture, which together with widespread digital and feminist literacy became instrumental in the organization of the movement. Social media connected activists and created a critical mass by supporting the uniting of conflicting identity positions around shared differences. The established feminist infrastructure meant that the #MeToo activism, by articulating a widespread affective dissonance, pushed open doors that were already half open and forced them wide. This can explain some of the movement's success in Sweden.

Suggested Citation

  • Karin Hansson & Hillevi Ganetz & Malin Sveningsson, 2024. "The significance of feminist infrastructure: #MeToo in the construction industry and the green industry in Sweden," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1092-1112, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:3:p:1092-1112
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12994
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12994?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lynne F. Baxter, 2021. "The importance of vibrant materialities in transforming affective dissonance into affective solidarity: How the Countess Ablaze organized the Tits Out Collective," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 898-916, May.
    2. Aida Alvinius & Arita Holmberg, 2019. "Silence‐breaking butterfly effect: Resistance towards the military within #MeToo," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(9), pages 1255-1270, September.
    3. Shu-Ling Lu & Martin Sexton, 2010. "Career journeys and turning points of senior female managers in small construction firms," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 125-139.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kate Kenny, 2024. "Feminist social movements and whistleblowing disclosures: Ireland's Women of Honour," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 961-982, May.
    2. Samuel Heimann & Kristina Johansson, 2024. "Gendered work in geoscience: Hard work in a masculine field," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 16-35, January.
    3. Mar Pérezts & Emmanouela Mandalaki, 2023. "Unsilencing silence on business school sexism : A behind-the-scenes narration on regaining voice," Post-Print hal-04325658, HAL.
    4. Amy Kipp & Roberta Hawkins, 2022. "From the nice work to the hard work: “Troubling” community‐based CareMongering during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1293-1313, July.
    5. Tracy Wilcox & Michelle Greenwood & Alison Pullen & Anne O’Leary Kelly & Deborah Jones, 2021. "Interfaces of domestic violence and organization: Gendered violence and inequality," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 701-721, March.
    6. Anna Maaranen & Janne Tienari, 2020. "Social media and hyper‐masculine work cultures," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1127-1144, November.
    7. George Kandathil & Rajeshwari Chennangodu, 2024. "Postfeminist individuating of a women collective and the strugglesome emergence of a relational collective feminist solidarity: The story of Kudumbashree, a Kerala state‐instituted women empowerment p," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 115-132, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:3:p:1092-1112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.