Shaped by Culture

Abstract

This thesis examines how organizational culture shapes gender equality

practices in male-dominated, technology-intensive organizations in Sweden.

The study is situated within contemporary societal challenges characterized by

technological development, the climate crisis, and persistent gender inequality,

where organizations are often portrayed as central arenas for change. At the

same time, previous research demonstrates that many technology-intensive

organizations are characterized by norms, hierarchies, and knowledge ideals

that reproduce inequality.

Drawing on feminist organization studies, organizations are understood as

gendered, and gender equality practices are conceptualized as situated,

relational, and culturally embedded processes through which gender is done.

The thesis consists of four studies in two interconnected yet organizationally

distinct contexts within Sweden’s technology-intensive landscape: technical

higher education and the financial technology (fintech) industry. The first

context is a technical university, where future engineers study, and technical

knowledge is produced and disseminated. The second context is the Swedish

fintech industry, with a particular focus on rapidly growing scale-up

organizations in which engineers work and technological innovation is

commercialized. Both contexts are numerically male-dominated and subject to

expectations to engage in gender equality and diversity work, yet are

characterized by different organizational logics and understandings of change.

Methodologically, the thesis employs a qualitative research approach combining

interviews, job shadowing, and document analysis. The first two papers analyze

gender equality practices in engineering education and demonstrate howandrocentric cultures shape both the scope of such practices and the

organizational conditions that enable them. The latter two papers focus on the

fintech industry and analyze how understandings of diversity are constructed at

the industry and organizational levels, and how gender equality practices are

integrated into, and constrained by, homosocial cultures.

By synthesizing the findings from the four studies, the thesis makes three key

contributions. First, it demonstrates that gender equality practices in these

contexts are shaped more by cultural norms than by strategic problem analysis,

resulting in initiatives that signal progress while leaving deeper power structures

intact. Second, it advances understanding of homosociality by showing how

men’s engagement is both enabled and constrained by the masculine legitimacy

they embody, positioning them as legitimate actors of change, yet often without

disrupting underlying hierarchies. Third, it contributes to research on

organizational change by revealing the inherent ambivalence of gender equality

practices: practices aimed at transformation may simultaneously reproduce

gendered power relations.

Link to DiVA