A content analysis of municipality websites in Värmland county.
Anna Omsford Axelsson
Supervisor's name: Katherine Harrison Gender Studies, LiU
Master’s Programme
Gender Studies – Intersectionality and Change Master’s thesis 15 ECTS credits
Abstract: This is a study about how the 16 different municipalities in Värmland county are representing diversity and equality on their websites by use of content analysis. I analysed diversity and equality in photos of people, first in a general context on the municipality homepages and then on their pages related to business and work. I found that there was a substantial knowledge gap in this area (of analysing official messages through photos displayed in the municipal context), although much research has been done previously on commercial imagery, for instance in advertising. From my analysis I concluded that nearly all of the municipalities in Värmland county could and should improve on representing diversity in their photos, both on their homepages and on their pages related to business and work. Looking at representations of gender only, the county of Värmland as a whole is closing in on a almost equal representation of women and men. But with some municipalities sprawling representing only one gender, there is definitely room for improvement here as well.
Research question: How are the municipalities in Värmland representing diversity and equality on their websites?
Keywords: diversity, equality, representation, content analysis, online content, municipality, website, organisation, gendered work, Värmland, Sweden.
Table of content
Introduction. 5
Introduction to previous research and theory, stereotypical representation theory. 8
Previous research municipality handbooks. 8
Previous research, print advertising. 10
Previous research, online content. 12
Intersectional feminist theory. 14
Organisational and gendered work theory. 15
Method and material. 17
About content analysis. 19
Why interpretive content analysis? 20
Delimitations. 21
Collection of empirical material. 23
Introduction to analysis of municipality homepages. (Table 1). 25
Diversity and equality? Group photos on the homepages. 26
Gender equality? Women and men on the homepages. 29
Introduction to analysis municipality business and work page. (Table 2). 30 Diversity and equality? Group photos on the business and work pages. 31
Photos of hands. 32
Gender equality? Women and men on the business and work pages. 34
Active women and men on the business and work pages. 35
What do they do? Stereotypic and counterstereotypic representations (business and work).36
Discussion and conclusion. 39
What’s next? Suggestions for future research. 41
References. 42
List of figures;
Figure 1. Karlstads kommuns webbplats. 18
Figure 2. Startsida - Hammarö kommun. 28
Figure 3. Välkommen till Kils kommun. 33
Figure 4. Näringsliv och arbete - Filipstads kommun. 33
Figure 5. Säffle kommun. 34
Figure 6. Munkfors kommun - I hjärtat av Värmland, längs Klarälven. 34
Figure 7. Årjängs kommun. 34
Figure 8. Näringsliv - Hammarö kommun. 36
Figure 9. Näringsliv och arbete - Arvika. 37
Figure 10. Näringsliv & arbete. 38
List of tables;
Table 1. Municipality homepage. 49
Introduction.
The county of Värmland has 16 different municipalities, I live in one of them, Karlstad, which has 93 898 inhabitants (Statistikmyndigheten SCB, 2020) After attending and volunteering at equality events in my hometown, I wanted to contribute to Region
Värmland’s equality work. Region Värmland is an organisation “responsible for all of the county of Värmland's publicly funded regional development, health care, culture, education and public transport” (Nergård, 2020). It is also important for me to produce knowledge that is potentially useful and relevant outside of academia. I moved to this region as an adult and wish to make an impact on it and make myself useful to organisations as passionate about equality as I am. When I met with Region Värmland in March 2020 we discussed many possible topics for this thesis, I decided on a topic that was both useful for them and sparked my interest. In this thesis I am going to analyze municipality websites. I am specifically going to focus on how the municipalities are representing diversity and equality in photos of people, first in a general context on the municipality homepages and then on their pages related to business and work, that is my aim.
For the purpose of this study, gender/genders is synonymous with women and men, but I am also including an intersectional perspective. In this text I define diversity as everyone being equally valuable, having the same rights and that everyone should be treated fairly and equally, and is worthy of and has the same rights to be represented, regardless of differences in genders, (sexual) orientations, ethnicities, abilities, ages etc. I chose to use the definition from the Swedish equality policy to define gender equality. By gender equality I mean; “that women and men shall have the same power to shape society and their own lives” (Lindhagen & Linde, 2019). In this thesis the discussion of diversity and equality in representations is the central theme and the context of the discussion in the paragraphs determines if the
perspective in that paragraph is intersectional, gender binary or both.
From these perspectives I will research who is represented and who is not represented in the photos on the municipality websites. I am hoping to find positive examples and also perhaps areas that need improvement. Therefore the research question of this study is: How are the municipalities in Värmland representing diversity and equality on their websites?
The county of Värmland markets itself with its nature, many different options for outdoor activities, food and for being the birthplace of author and Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, who was an early women’s rights activist (Landin, 2020). According to statistics gathered in 2016, many of the largest employers in this county are found in the manufacturing industry, making steel parts, cars, paper or coffee (Handelskammaren Värmland, 2016). Forestry is another big industry, according to Region Värmland (2014) [my translation] “every sixth cardboard packaging with liquide content originates from Värmland” (p. 12), so the forest, it seems, is a natural asset that is valued for both business and recreation. I also know from my previous working life experience as a shop assistant that the closeness to Norway positions Värmland to have a strong retail economy. Region Värmland (2014) emphasises the
closeness to Norway both as very important for several different business branches as well as important for the labour market in this county (p. 15).
When I set out to find my base of previous research it was difficult to find a study like the one I decided to do. Because this is a very local study of the municipalities in the county of Värmland, I wanted to find out what has been written previously about this local area. I managed to find some research (done by other students) that was loosely connected to my area of interest, at least because it was set in the online space and related to the county of Värmland, but in all of the studies I found, the diversity and equality perspective was absent. These studies are for instance about user friendliness of municipality websites (Beskow, 2006). There are also studies done from a place marketing perspective, focusing on and
describing the challenges of how to best build a good image for the municipality online (Gustavsson, 2013). Another study was about how a municipality is communicating with its residents, for instance younger generations (Andersson, 2007). The knowledge gap in this area, the missing diversity and equality perspective, was surprising to me because “as human beings continue to produce and consume digital information online, the gendered imagery found in many of these messages can shape and influence human attitudes, perceptions, behaviors, and norms” (Singh, Chayko, Inamdar, & Floegel, 2020, p. 12). This influencing and change making potential of the online medium should receive more attention from gender scholars, because as we will find out, it is a topic that matters. Therefore my study has the potential to produce new interesting knowledge, perhaps inspiring other gender scholars to do more research in this area. I also imagine this thesis will be of interest to the different
municipalities in Värmland and to Region Värmland. It could be of interest to communicators and equality strategists elsewhere in other municipalities and organisations nationally and internationally as well.
My thesis also contributes to the equality debate in Sweden, by describing how diversity and equality is portrayed online in one part of the country, in general and in relation to a local labour market. Sweden prides itself on being an equality conscious nation, with issues that concern equality and inclusivity high on the government's agenda, such as democratic equal rights, economic equality, equality in healthcare and safety from gendered violence
(Lindhagen & Linde, 2019, p. 2). And even though equality is a priority, Sweden (like all nations) also struggles with living up to it’s set equality goals and expectations. If we look at the Swedish labour market for example, a topic that is related to my study, we understand that this labour market, in theory, is open to all. But we can also read in the Swedish equality policy document that the labour market is gender segregated (Lindhagen & Linde, 2019). And if we look around ourselves, in our home environments, we can observe that there are more identity categories intersecting with gender that segregate people in the labour market. Therefore it is safe to say that there is still a lot to do in terms of equality work locally and nationally in Sweden (and globally as well) and a constant need to keep the equality debate going from many directions and perspectives at once.
In this thesis I will first introduce previous research and theory, discussing the different areas of image representation, explaining what a stereotype is and how stereotyping functions by employing Hall’s (2013) theory of representation. Because I feel that an understanding of the concept of stereotyping is vital to my perspective and how I read my research material. When it comes to previous research I am starting with the foundation of it all, giving a
representative example (in terms of their findings) of research done on the vastly studied area of traditional print advertising photos and then moving on to research done on photos in the less explored online space, where my own research takes place. I will outline and introduce intersectional feminist theory as well as Ackers (2006, 2012) theory on gendered
organisations as my theoretical framework. To handle the amount of empirical material collected from all the 16 municipalities in Värmland county, in my categories of interest, I will use interpretive content analysis as my research method. Then I will analyse and discuss
my collected empirical material by employing the theory and previous research mixing it with my own reflections. At the end I will draw my conclusion and hopefully answer my research question.
Introduction to previous research and theory, stereotypical representation theory. Because this thesis will contain discussions about representations and stereotypes represented in photos on municipality websites, I will start by explaining the concept of stereotyping and how stereotypes work by employing the writings of Hall (2013). Here are what I call three points of stereotyping according to Hall (2013):
● The first point is -stereotyping reduces, essentializes, naturalises and fixes ´difference´.
● Secondly stereotyping deploys a strategy of ´splitting´. It divides the normal and the acceptable from the abnormal and the unacceptable.
● The third point is that stereotyping tends to occur where there are gross inequalities of power. Power is usually directed against the subordinate or excluded group. (p. 247, p. 248)
What we understand from this is that stereotypes have a lot to do with power structures. They “fix meaning” (Hall, 2013, p. 259) about people, about ethnicity, about genders, about
abilities, about jobs and so on, and this leads to “closure and exclusion” (Hall, 2013, p. 248) for people who do not fit in to the preconceived notions, the fixed ideal norm. Stereotyping also contributes to creating prejudice about others, and that is why a discussion of
stereotypical representations is important.
Previous research, municipality handbooks.
Two sources in a handbook format, that contain many discussions about stereotypical and non stereotypical examples, that have been very useful to me when analysing the photos on the municipality websites, are Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson (2016) and their publication; Bilder som förändrar världen, and Region Värmland (2016) and their publication; Schyst!. These two publications are both filled with examples of how to read photos from an diversity
and equality perspective, on a detailed level. They point to good and bad examples by using those photos, perhaps circling details or explaining why a photo is problematic from a diversity and or equality perspective both visually and in text. Because of this they have an accessible pedagogic format, if compared to many academic texts, presumably because they are designed to be used in a more day to day practice in organisations. That being said their message should not be regarded as more or less important than other sources.
Something else that makes these sources very relevant for me to use in my study, is that one is produced and printed by a Swedish municipality and the other is produced and printed by an organisation dedicated to regional development and there isn’t a lot of research like this, on this topic (how to represent diversity and equality in photos), at least not that is available to the public.
Even if I believe that much research in general aims to bring awareness, create change and offer a societal critique, in my area, I have found that it’s most common focus is content and photos made and displayed in the commercial context such as advertising, films, tv-series etc. or in the personal context, for instance selfies on social media (Döring, Reif, & Poeschl, 2016, p. 961). This leaves me with many questions of why it’s like this? Might it be that the direct change making potential is greater in the commercial realm? I feel like there is a lot of attention and resources directed at this area in general. Is it perhaps easier to make a company change its gender stereotypical advertising by, for instance, raising public awareness with research? And inspire people to use their consumer power depriving the company of income from sales as a consequence? Than it is to change what a country or a municipality is
displaying on their digital platforms? Or is it that commercial content in its design simply is more interesting because it’s more extreme and in your face, provoking stronger reactions of resistance, and therefore studied more?
This ability of commercial photos to provoke reactions I feel is a lot more invasive to the personal space than more subtle types of photos, for instance those on municipality websites, because companies have the resources to bombard their message in many different mediums at once, to create impact (and profits from consumers buying their products). Commercial photos are designed to be juicy and provoking and have even been found to affect how we represent ourselves in photos (Döring et al., 2016). While more official messages, perhaps
because they don’t spark those initial reactions of resistance or passion or have the same stick in your head design, are more easy to ignore or pass by. But that does not mean that what they convey is unimportant to study. Often their message is more important, than the latest newest thing one can acquire and I think these types of photos should be analysed more.
Previous research, print advertising.
Gendered representation in advertising is a researched topic, while my study has nothing directly to do with marketing of goods and services as such I argue that my study is indirectly linked with marketing in an image creating way for the municipalities. The municipalities represent themselves, their image, through the photos they display (amongst other things) on their websites. Therefore research done on marketing images is relevant to mention.
Especially if it includes an analysis of the representations of both women and men, because that is what I aim to do as well.
I found a study by Döring & Pöschl (2006) that is detailed and comparative in it’s design and considers the representations of both women and men in advertising. In their own words “the present study was designed to analyze gender stereotypes in print advertisements for mobile communication systems in German popular magazines intended for men, women, and general readership” (Döring & Pöschl, 2006, p. 173), by use of quantitative content analysis. This text was helpful and inspiring to me in several ways, one reason is because it is not an American study and it is always good to diversify one's sources in terms of perspectives (Davis & Craven, 2016, p. 67). The text also gave me guidance and inspiration about making choices of how to collect my empirical material. A more detailed elaboration can be found in the methodological chapter of this text. What Döring & Pöschl (2006) found is “that gender stereotypes are still common in advertising, at least for mobile communication systems” (p. 182) and that the stereotypical depiction varied depending on the different mediums (types of magazines) (p.183). They found that “general interest magazines depicted women and men in highly traditional ways” (Döring & Pöschl, 2006, p. 183) and this medium is perhaps closest in content to the municipality websites I am analysing at least compared to men’s or women's magazines. Because the municipality websites are also of a more general interest type, with a
wide target group (all the citizens in the municipality, in the county or nationwide). In more niched magazines Döring & Pöschl (2006) found that “in the men’s magazines there also emerged a somewhat traditional pattern” (p. 183) of representing both genders, but “in women’s magazines, traditional patterns seem to be undergoing change” (p.183). As an example of this change, Döring & Pöschl (2006) present the fact that women are depicted in a masculine (being outdoors, doing sports etc) and or work context more often in women’s magazines, than in the other two mediums, and that is at least something.
I think print format has both similarities and differences to online material, as both can be niched towards a certain target group or audience, or to be of more general interest for everyone as described above. I think the target audience is potentially larger in the online spaces, even for niched content (an online women's magazine for instance), because it can be accessed globally, the content text can be translated into many languages and there is a more direct interaction between the sender and the receiver of the message, for instance in a comment section. As easy as it is to interact with, perhaps it might also be easier to ignore online content. There might be digital safety issues attached, if one for example clicks on links and banners with advertising messages, compared to the print format, in the online space who the sender is, is not always obvious. Although one is also more exposed and therefore used to online content nowadays, because more and more of life has moved into the digital space, especially in our current global situation. But even before the 2020 pandemic I for one don’t remember when I read a print copy of a glossy magazine or a newspaper last (although I do like paper books). And the municipality websites need to follow this digital evolution as well.
When it comes to what is displayed in content I don't find the print format and the online format all that different, much imagery and what is displayed in photos looks the same. It is important to remember that print advertising was first. Then it moved into a digital space gradually. Print advertising is still the base, the model for content creation. As we will find out in this next paragraph digital spaces are not free-er from gender or other stereotypes compared to the print format, as one might otherwise assume because it is a new-er medium. Because my study is about photos on municipality homepages and in the context of business
and work, my research takes place online. Therefore we are now moving from research done on the more traditional format of print advertising photos to the online space.
Previous research, online content.
To start off, it is worth mentioning the evidence detected in research of how the print format is still shaping the online space. Döring et al. (2016 ) found that even when people are seemingly free to produce their own online photographical content, representing themselves, the result is still often gender stereotypic. According to Döring et al. (2016 ) “Instagram selfies reproduce traditional gender stereotypes and do so even to a larger extent than
magazine adverts” (p. 961), who we learned in the previous segment are often very traditional in their portrayal of genders (Döring & Pöschl, 2006). The explanation for this offered by the authors is that people reproduce what they see in media content, sometimes in ways that are even more extreme than the original source of inspiration, in this case print advertising (Döring et al., 2016, p. 961). To me this supports the argument that both print and online content does not exist in a vacuum and that both are present in people's everyday lives, and that both act in a way that is influencing them in one way or another.
Other areas that have been of interest in previous research of the online space are the
“potential biases in search engines and in stock photos” (Kay, Matuszek, & Munson, 2015, p. 3827) when it comes to images of gendered work stereotypes. A search engine is perhaps something that most would view as more neutral, at least in this context of occupation finding, even if we are aware that there are biases and stereotypes in general online. In their research Kay et al. (2015) found several interesting things. For one, search engines online contribute to the portraying of a gender-segregated labour market, as Kay et al. (2015) write; “image search results for occupations slightly exaggerated gender stereotypes and portray the minority gender for an occupation less professionally” (p. 3827), what I deduce from this is that if I do a photo search of a traditionally female occupation, nurse for example, using a search engine I will likely see images of women as nurses. If I type in the occupation of corporate leader instead, an occupation traditionally associated with men, I will see photos of men as corporate leaders. This second tendency to show the underrepresented gender, for instance, using an example from my study, a female industry worker, in a bad light seems to
me as very problematic from an equality perspective. And I imagine might have very serious effects, that might be relevant for future research, but I did not find any evidence of this in my analysis. The effect of this display of a gender-segregated labour market through images online will according to Kay et al. (2015) “serve to reinforce gender sorting into different careers and unequal compensation for men and women in the same career” (p. 3819). So not only does stereotypical imagery of the labour market online continue to reproduce traditional stereotypical gendered work roles for women and men, and push them towards making those conventional career choices, it also contributes to the gender pay-gap. Re emphasising again that the images we see online, and what they portray can have a detrimental impact and are important to study from an equality perspective.
While Kay et al. (2015) carefully phrase the underrepresentation of images of women, even in occupations that have an equal number of women and men (p. 3820). Singh, et al. (2020), make a clearer, more decisive argument, stating that their research “finds that women . . . are largely underrepresented in images on digital platforms” (p. 10). When it comes to images in a work and occupational context they found that “this underrepresentation was consistent for both male-dominated and female-dominated professions” (Singh et al., 2020, p. 9) so
according to this I would expect to see more men in the context of business and work than women on the municipality websites.
But it isn’t all bad, even though the majority of the material I have read seems to point in that direction. According to Singh et al. (2020) their “study suggest that some gender-based occupational stereotypes are being challenged on some digital media platforms” (p. 9), an encouraging finding. How the content is produced is mentioned as important and Singh et al. (2020) emphasize that when people are more involved in the creation of content on websites the content is better at least from an equality perspective, because the outcome is less
stereotypical (Singh, et al., 2020, p.12).
Singh et al. (2020) also agree with the previous studies I have mentioned and conclude that “gender stereotypes are far from eradicated on digital media, just as they are far from absent in societal discourse” (p. 9) and this makes sense to me, given what we have learned in this segment. Because digital spaces are a part of and connected to physical spaces and to the larger society and its cultural norms. Photos on municipality websites for example can mirror
reality and the culture and norms of that society, but it can also exaggerate them or contest them.
The level of comfort I find we all have being accustomed to and living with stereotypical imagery in digital or non digital forms is both interesting and a bit disturbing. Especially since we also have the knowledge “that exposure to counter-stereotypical images can reduce stereotypical attitudes, this enhances opportunities for gender-related social change” (Singh et al., 2020, p.11) and we should take those opportunities and use them for instance to
desegregate labour markets and occupations, or to combat racism (Ramasubramanian, 2011).
Intersectional feminist theory.
When conducting this kind of analysis, I (as a white feminist) am grateful for the insights that intersectional feminist theory has given me about my position of privilege, about history, and about the world of feminism since “intersectionality theory arose from black feminist thought as an incisive critique of mainstream feminism” (Levine-Rasky, 2011, p. 240) and without that critique I believe we would all be lesser feminists today. Without intersectional feminist theory, it would be more difficult to analyse and discuss problematic patterns in photos, in this case, on municipality websites. Most would agree that intersectionality as a concept and a working theory started with Crenshaw (1989) and her critique of contemporary white
feminism, when she writes that “feminism must include an analysis of race if it hopes to express the aspirations of non-white women” (p. 166). There is no escaping that, “gender is always raced and race is always gendered” (Levine-Rasky, 2011, p. 241). Intersectional feminist theory argues that a person can never just belong to one identity category at the time and that the identity categories are inseparable from one another. Levine-Rasky (2011) explains how “early formulations became influential for their integration of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, and other axes of identity” (p. 240), and that
intersectionality illustrated how these identity categories interact with each other in a given situation. Therefore there is no homogeneous group that is women for example, we are all different and experience life differently (Brah Phoenix, 2004, p. 82). Not only are our
experiences and struggles shaped by the identity categories mentioned above, but also by our geopolitical locations (Levine-Rasky, 2011, p. 241). According to Adib & Guerrier (2003)
intersectional feminist theory “also avoids essentialism and enables the significance of
context to be explored” (p. 416), how depending on the context the identity categories that we belong to are valued as good or bad. That for example in the eyes of others, “power relations, class and ethnicity will reinforce each other in some circumstances while they will contradict each other in different circumstances” (Levine-Rasky, 2011, p. 248), which means that depending on the context of a given situation the identity categories we belong to can be seen as either useful assets or unuseful signifiers that give us privileges or disadvantages.
Intersectional feminist theory and its usefulness is contested by some, such as Carbin & Edenheim (2013) and encouraged by others; “many different feminist researchers are in agreement that gender should be theorized as intersectional” (Lykke, 2010, p. 67). I have heard both sides and agree with the latter. I think intersectional feminist theory is more useful than it is not, because to think in terms of power and privilege and about how we as people are all different and belong to many inseparable identity categories seems very logical and in line with my feminist thinking. This is the core of how I have come to understand what intersectional feminist theory is, and I hope to use it in this study to identify diversity in my empirical material.
Organisational and gendered work theory.
Because I am also specifically interested in how Värmland county’s labor markets are represented on the municipality websites, who better to guide me through my analysis of the tab business and work than the theories of Joan Acker? According to Benschop & Brink (2018) “Joan Acker can be considered the godmother of gendered organizations” (p. 1763), I don’t object to that statement because I find her writings on intersectional gender and
organisations both insightful and accurate.
So how does gender and intersectionality work in organisations and in the labour market? Acker (2006) writes “all organizations have inequality regimes . . . that result in and maintain class, gender, and racial inequalities within particular organizations” (p. 443). These
inequality regimes do not stand alone, “the culture of a particular organization is, of course, located in the larger cultural terrain of the surrounding society” (Acker, 2012, p. 216), and
societies as we know are filled with obvious and subtle gendered norms and expectations. As in societies “gender, as socially constructed differences between men and women and the beliefs and identities that support difference and inequality, is also present in all
organizations” (Acker, 2006, p. 444). It is therefore fair to say that when analysing inequality in organisations it is impossible to separate the organisation from the larger society and vice versa. This dictates for instance what is valued, according to Acker (2006) “the image of the successful organization and the image of the successful leader share many of the same characteristics, such as strength, aggressiveness, and competitiveness” (p. 445), I, and probably most of us would interpret these qualities as traditionally associated with men and masculinity. I find that the core of Acker’s (2006) argument is that (successful) organizations are gendered as male.
When it comes to gender specifically these stereotypes relate to what women and men are supposedly essentially good at, “for example, women doctors are likely to specialize in pediatrics, not surgery, which is still largely a male domain” (Acker, 2006, p. 446). Other examples of gendered occupations “with a strong masculine gender symbolism . . . are fireman, post-mortem examiner and army officer, while secretary, seamstress, fashion creator, hairdresser and nurse are often connected with different versions of femininity” (Alvesson & Billing, 2009, p. 74), what this actually says is that men are natural leaders, tough and strong both mentally and physically. Women on the other hand are good at design and aesthetics, they are caring, detail oriented and organized. And these traditional gendered work roles truly encompass the whole person, so what we look physically capable of, matters as well, “ body differences provide clues to the appropriate assumptions, followed by
appropriate behaviors” (Acker, 2006, p. 451). This highly questionable preconceived notion when it comes to gender and work, that was brought to light by Acker (2006), is that “female bodies are appropriate for some jobs; male bodies for other jobs” (p. 449) and although I am aware that there are exceptions, this seems to be a deeply rooted idea in societies, in the labour market and in organisations. As we can see these preconceived notions, stereotypes, about what gender combined with other identity categories fits with what occupation affects people in a profound way both outside and inside of the organisations.
The consequences are many, one of them, as I’ve discussed above, is that men are seen as more natural leaders compared to women. If we add ethnicity to gender as an intersecting identity category we see that “white men are still clearly the dominant category in the top positions in almost all organizations” (Acker, 2012, p. 221) because they “fit” the
stereotypical description of what is desired in the male gendered organisation. Something that can easily be observed by studying any large organisational structure. Even though again there are exceptions here and there, I see very little evidence of this fact changing any time soon. That white men are found at the top of organisations might also be a reason for why organisations are so resistant to change, “white masculine identity may be tied to small relative advantages in workplace power and income” (Acker, 2006, p. 455) and if so there is no motivation or incentive to aid in organisational changes that promote diversity and
equality. Acker (2006) also argues that “advantage is hard to give up: Increasing equality with devalued groups can be seen and felt as an assault on dignity and masculinity” (p. 455) and the position of power along with gender identity must be kept and defended. Then again it might be that awareness about inequalities in the organisational context (or in general) might be lacking “people in dominant groups generally see inequality as existing somewhere else, not where they are” (Acker, 2006, p. 452), I find this to be a very important insight in how to understand organisations and cultures alike. Because I too believe that privilege is often invisible to the one experiencing it. To that person it’s just their normal life. Either way it will be interesting to see whether this organisational hierarchy, with the white man on top or not can be visually identified in my research. Or if I will find any representations of stereotypical gendered work roles for women and men on the municipality websites.
Method and material.
Now that the theoretical framework is set it’s time to collect and analyse the empirical material and describe how I plan to do this (my research method). But first I will give a general overview of the municipality websites. Below you can see an example from Karlstad, the municipality where I live, of what the top of a municipality homepage might look like (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Karlstad kommun. (n.d.). Karlstads kommuns webbplats [Screenshot by author]. Retrieved from https://karlstad.se
Most of the the municipalities have their own design on their webpages, but the webpages still seem to have a few features in common. The name of the municipality and their logo is displayed in the top left corner, and below are the tabs who often have the same, or similar, titles as the other municipalities are using. Examples of titles are for instance experiences, traffic and travel, business and work, governance and power etc. The tabs are also displayed in roughly the same order, business and work for example is never displayed first but rather in the middle or towards the end in the row of tabs. If the viewer clicks on the tab specific information is displayed on the topic of the tab. Keeping thematic information under tabs makes it easy for the viewer to navigate on the websites, even though style and fonts differ from website to website.
The websites that I will be analysing display many different messages and public
announcements relevant for everyone. The municipality homepages are places where new and longtime residents of, or tourists visiting the municipality or other interested parties such as organisations and businesses can find current information about the municipality. The homepages display information in many areas of general interest and have many links that contain news stories. At this time there was understandably a lot of safety and pandemic information, but also more practical information for instance where road construction is
taking place right now affecting traffic, plans for new housing developments, or where to find good hiking trails etc.
Since no information on publisher or latest update date was available in most cases on the websites, and the only contact information to was to the municipalities themselves, I am assuming the municipalities do and maintain the websites on their own. This means that some municipalities might update more frequently than others, except for when it came to current pandemic information, which was constantly updated on all municipality homepages. At the time of retrieval pandemic information did not affect the content under the tab of business and work.
About content analysis.
To do a study that incorporates all of the 16 municipalities in Värmland county felt the most appropriate, having my research question and my research aim in mind. The method that I decided to use for this study was a variation of content analysis, called interpretive content analysis and in the following paragraphs I will explain why.
In the beginning of this research process I learned that content analysis is a method associated with analysing mass media, both in the printed and digital format, that often has an imagery or photographic element to it, advertising for instance (Rudy, Popova, & Linz, 2010, p. 710). Also, content analysis seems to have been used for a number of different equality related topics in the past. According to Rudy et al. (2010) “portrayals of men’s and women’s roles, relationships, conflict-resolution strategies, ages, races, languages, goals and aspirations, sizes and weights, and many other characteristics have all been examined through content analysis” (p. 707), so it seemed to be a flexible as well as tried and tested method, that would cater to my needs when I set out to gather my empirical material (representations of diversity and equality in photos online). I also felt that the slightly mixed approach of my study, being quantitative in the collection of my empirical material with some qualitative elements in the analysis of that material fit with this method, because “while content analysis cannot directly answer questions about effects of content, nor can it determine motives of content producers,
very appropriate to me going forward. Content analysis can also be used to identify what is present, visible and important and what is absent (van Leeuwen, Jewitt, & Van Leeuwen, 2000, p. 26), and that is (partly) what I am interested to find out as well.
Why interpretive content analysis?
According to Maschi & Drisko (2015) content analysis has several variations. The most common one is basic content analysis. In this variation it is my impression that researchers (most often) study what is directly visible, what is manifesting, without much interpretation (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 23). Studies I have read often form hypothesis beforehand to test against the empirical material (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 22). Basic content analysis also seems to try to be more value neutral, not acknowledging the researchers epistemological position or what effect the researchers involvement might have on the study (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 29). Also dictionaries with codes are used, where a specific code has a specific meaning (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 43). And the research process is collaborative, where according to Ahuvia (2001) “multiple coders each independently follow coding rules to code the texts” (p. 145) or other research material. I have explained all of this because basic content analysis method is the base from which the interpretive content analysis method developed (Ahuvia, 2001). And at least according to Maschi & Drisko (2015) the two method variations, the basic and the interpretive, can not be easily separated from each other (p. 58).
I find the two method variations share similarities in for instance how sampling is done. In both the basic and the interpretive content analysis method, “researchers initially identify a specific set of texts or participants, then seek out a subset of this initial sampling frame” (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 70), and although my study is relatively small, compared to other content analysis studies that I have read, I also intend to do this in my analysis. First by quantitatively counting all the relevant representations on the municipality homepages and the business and work pages, and then identifying good and bad examples and analysing them further in a bit more of a qualitative way.
But the two method variations also have differences. In interpretive content analysis there are no code books to follow, as mentioned above, instead the role of the researcher is central,
because “the researcher is the instrument of coding and other analytic decision in interpretive content analysis” (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 78). To me this means that interpretive content analysis allows me to be more present, transparent and accountable in my research, by
making and explaining my choices and this feels more appropriate to me, for doing feminist research. Another difference is that one researcher is enough when doing interpretive content analysis, although collaboration between several researchers if possible is encouraged. (Ahuvia, 2001, p. 145), (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 75).
The most discussed differences between the two variations of content analysis, at least
according to Maschi & Drisko (2015), seems to be in epistemological positions and the use of reflexivity in the research, where the interpretive variation incorporates more of both (Maschi & Drisko, 2015), and that is another reason why I decided to use the interpretive variation. From the start I felt I did not only want to present statistical numbers, in a seemingly neutral way, without also reflecting on and incorporating the perspective that we understand content in different ways, and that “readers may interpret and make meaning of the presented content from different standpoints, or from cultural backgrounds with very different purposes than those of the content analyst” (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 67). I very much agree with this statement and that is yet another reason why I chose interpretive content analysis over the basic variation as my research method. Also Maschi & Drisko (2015) write that the awareness that content can be interpreted differently depending on who is doing the interpretation “appears to be a constructivist epistemological position” (p. 67). Again something I feel is in line with my own epistemological position.
Delimitations.
With a wealth of information present on a web page “the first choice a researcher must make is what material to include in the study—and when to stop” (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 39), therefore before I started collecting my empirical material I had to decide my delimitations.
I will be analysing municipality websites, i.e. official messages in the local region where I live in Värmland county, Sweden. I will use a viewer perspective and first focus on the front page and then the content under the tab called “businesses and work” on the websites. To
focus on the tab “businesses and work” specifically is related to my pre existing knowledge and interest in the subject of diversity and equality in the labour market.
To limit this study, I will be focusing on the photos. Not text, graphics, links, maps or made up images of for instance new neighbourhoods or of building plans. If a photo is repeatedly used it is counted and analysed again in the new context. I will consider cropped photos where the face of the person is not visible but most of the upper body, or body parts if they are identifiable according to my categories.
I collected my empirical material between the 6th and 12th of April in 2020. I didn't choose this week for any particular reason, for me it was a regular week, it was simply a good time for me in my research process to collect my empirical material. Worth mentioning is that at that time we, Sweden along with the rest of the world, were in the thick of the global pandemic crisis of 2020. This I felt affected the municipality homepages a little, because obviously safety and other relevant information about the pandemic situation was displayed first, at the very top of the pages, but then below this information one could see that the website content was displayed as usual.The content under the tab business and work on the other hand did not display any pandemic crisis information between the 6th to 12th of April 2020. My observations are based on the photographical content available at the time it was retrieved, any changes in the content made after this week, on the different municipality websites, for better or for worse, is not considered.
As I briefly mentioned in the introduction, for the purpose of this study my perspective on gender is binary, because I will be counting (only obvious) photos of women and men to see if the genders get equal representation. I will however also add intersecting identity
categories to gender and analyse the photos from this perspective, counting (only obvious) diverse representations when they are present. How and why I decided to do an in part both a gender binary and intersectional study will be elaborated on further in this next paragraph.
Collection of empirical material.
In interpretive content analysis “the coders’ goal is to identify the most revealing,
meaningful, or common material in a set of documents” (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 74), so I did a quick overview and reflected on what representations would yield the most information in regards to my research question, I also decided to call my codes categories. The analysis will be done in chronology from a user/viewer perspective, starting with the municipality homepage that provides a first impression and then moving, with one click on the tab with the same name, to the business and work page. The order of municipalities was arranged
according to population, starting with the largest municipality (Statistikmyndigheten SCB, 2019).
When deciding what categories to use for the collection of my empirical material, I had four main sources of inspiration. I followed Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson’s (2016) example and used a binary approach to gender (a more diverse approach to gender could be used in a future study), counting only women and men (p. 9). Within this binary frame I also wanted to explore intersectionality. Going beyond gender, I wanted some open categories as well where potential positive representations of inclusion and diversity could be made visible not
knowing what the material would look like beforehand. Here I could count and analyse photos that included diverse representations, where gender intersected with ethnicity, (sexual) orientation, ability or age, to name a few examples (Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson, 2016, p.9). I struggled quite a bit with how to best accomplish this goal without overwhelming my study with categories too much, keeping feasibility in mind. Here Döring & Pöschl’s (2006) quantitative content analysis study of mobile phone advertisements served as a great
inspiration, they write “first the persons in the advertisements were coded as to ‘group membership’ (whether the depicted person is part of a heterogeneous or homogeneous group or not) and ‘gender’ (whether the person is male, female, or unidentifiable)” (p. 177). I felt their way of doing their research and the order in which they placed the categories was a good fit for me as well. And I ended up using both the grouping categories and the unidentifiable category. To make the group category in either the heterogeneous or homogeneous column, according to my criteria, there has to be more than one person in the photo, this means that couples are also considered groups in this study. One might argue then, that I am clumping
together a lot of relevant information, rather anonymously, but a more detailed elaboration of what information the group categories contained will follow in the analysis and conclusion portions.
I was also interested in what the people in the photos were doing, if they were depicted as active and or working for instance, or just posing passively for the photo. I used Region Värmland (2016) who state that [my translation] “an image can say more than (a thousand) words” (p. 11), along with Sveriges Kvinnolobby (2013), as a base to form and interpret the categories active men and active women. By now, I feel the stereotype of the active man and the passive woman in marketing imagery and otherwise is well established. Again and again “studies of newspaper content have found worldwide proliferation of binary gender
stereotypes in articles, images, and advertisements” (Singh, et al., 2020, p. 3), a statement that Döring & Pöschl (2006) also agree with. In order to approach this stereotype from a different angle I decided to focus on the positive category of active alone rather than including both active and passive. This helped to keep the number of categories down, but I also think that a zero value in the category of active women, today, speaks volumes on its own. In the
categories active men or active women single photos are no longer counted, but individuals who are represented as actively doing something (often working). If many individuals are active in one photo they are all counted. This category considers both group and individual photos, that means that one photo can potentially contain both active men and active women and if so they will all be counted.
The unidentifiable (Döring & Pöschl, 2006) and people not present category is for photos where I felt the gender and other identity categories of the person in the photo was
unreadable. This does not mean that these photos don’t hold otherwise important information. However for the purpose of this study, if it for example was not obvious what gender, age, ethnicity etc. the person had, the photo was counted in the unidentifiable category. This happened for example to many small photos that were showing large gatherings of people, or photos of small children. If these photos were difficult to place in my gender categories, but could be counted in the heterogeneous/homogeneous group categories, they were. If a photo was depicting children with an adult, and for instance the gender of that adult was obvious but not the gender of the child/children, then based on the adult the photo was added to the
relevant category. In this category one also finds all the numerous photos of landscapes and objects where people are not present. Silhouettes and, quite commonly used, blurred photos ended up here as well.
The last category was both an open category where interesting observation could be logged, if a municipality used a film instead of photos for example. This was also used for counting the photos of white hands. Here I counted all photos that fit within that category, when it came to photos of hands, groups of hands as well as a single hand and everything in between was counted. Because these photos of white hands were recurring so much on the
municipality websites I felt they were relevant and important to incorporate in the study (Maschi & Drisko, 2015, p. 74).
According to Maschi & Drisko (2015) transparency about and “by showing how the interpretive coding and analysis process was completed the author also established her credibility with the reader” (p. 63) and I think, now that we are about to start the analysis portion of this text, that I have sufficiently done that, at least when it comes to my categories and about my process of collecting my empirical material.
Introduction to analysis of municipality homepages. (Table 1).
As I wrote in the method part, the municipality homepages give the viewer a first impression. They display very relevant as well as general information on many topics, that could be of interest to many different people. All of the municipalities communicate with photos on their homepages, some use more photos than others. Säffle municipality for instance has the highest number of photos (15) and Torsby municipality has the least number of them (only 2) (Appendix, Table 1). It is noteworthy that the ratio of photos clearly depicting people is a little less than half, (43%). The other 57% of the content displayed in the photos belongs to the unidentifiable/people not present category. As I mentioned in the introduction many of the municipalities use photos of nature to market themselves, such as wide deserted
landscapes seen slightly from above (drone camera) or of spring flowers, who both belong to this category.
This means that going forward the most emphasis in the analysis of my empirical material will be put on the one half, the 43%, that is clearly depicting people, because that material is most relevant for finding an answer to my research question.
Diversity and equality? Group photos on the homepages.
Not all municipalities display group photos, 9 out of 16 municipalities have photos of either heterogeneous or homogeneous groups on their homepages. Distributed on these nine municipality homepages there are 30 identifiable group photos in total. Only five of those photos, are of identifiable heterogeneous groups (Appendix, Table 1). As I wrote in my method section, I am looking for several representations of diversity and inclusion at once under the umbrella term heterogeneous groups. I am however finding that of all the potentially intersectional possibilities of how a photo could be inclusive and represent diversity in a population and therefore make this category, ethnic diversity is the only
category that gets any, however small representation (Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson, 2016, p. 9), (Levine-Rasky, 2011, p. 241). Stating the obvious, heterogeneous groups are terribly underrepresented on the municipality homepages in Värmland county. Even more noteworthy is that these photos (of heterogeneous groups) can only be found on two of the nine
municipality homepages that display group photos. Karlstad municipality has three of the photos and Säffle has two. Karlstad is also the only municipality that has an equal number of group photos for both the heterogeneous and the homogenous group category (three photos in each category) (Appendix, Table 1). As I mentioned in the introduction, when I defined diversity and equality, I think everyone should be and feel empowered, included and welcome to participate in our democratic society, regardless of what identity categories one belongs to. I also wrote that I think that everyone is equally valuable and worthy of
representation. In this regard I find that the municipality websites are lacking diversity in representation.
All nine municipalities displaying group photos have representations of homogeneous groups, of white people, on their homepages. There are 25 individual photos of identifiable homogeneous groups in total (83% of the total group photo number) (Appendix, Table 1). Because of this my general impression, of all but two of the municipality homepages, is that
they represent white people heavily. I expected a higher level of ethnic diversity than the one I encountered and found myself reacting happily when I saw a non white person, for instance on Säffles photo slide on the homepage, because visible diversity, in this case ethnic
diversity, was so seldomly represented in the photos I analysed.
Confronted with this representation of whiteness in the group photos, I find it determines and signifies (Hall, 2013, p. 259), that a majority of the municipalities in Värmland county are only inhabited by white people (like myself). This in turn according to Hall (2013) leads to “closure and exclusion” (p. 248), of societies and in the minds of individuals, an argument that is supported by Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson (2016) who write [my translation] “that when only the norm gets exposure, it gets amplified, and makes the ones who don´t fit the norm seem even more foreign and different”(p. 10). In this case being white is portrayed as the norm in the photos represented on the majority of the municipality homepages in
Värmland county. And whether representative of reality or not, the stereotype of whiteness “fixes ´difference´” (Hall, 2013, p. 247) between someone white and someone who is
non-white and I can’t help but wonder what consequences this has on for instance integration in the municipalities.
I can not speak from experience to whether the representations I saw on the municipality homepages are mirrors of reality, or if they are accurately depicting the population in every municipality or not, I can only speak to what message the photos are conveying. I have however learned that the effect of this representation discussed above can be amended and that photos don't always have to represent reality. Sometimes according to Region Värmland (2016) photos can represent a desired reality. This can be achieved by showing for instance gender and or ethnic diversity in photos that is greater than the actual diversity in a society, or a segregated area, for instance in a specific labour market or education program (p. 20).
When looking for other intersectional identity categories on the municipality homepages, I found that some municipalities did include (white) people of old age in the photos. More old women than old men were represented for some reason and even though the representations were quite few, the inclusion of old people was encouraging because old age is often
of old age I was happy about that Hammarö municipality had included a photo of an old couple (Figure 2). It's the only one of its kind that I saw of age inclusivity and it is a cozy photo of man and a woman sitting on a flow dock, possibly enjoying romance late in life, instead of in a need of care context.
Figure 2. Hammarö kommun. (n.d.). Startsida - Hammarö kommun [Screenshot by author]. Retrieved from https://www.hammaro.se.
Taking a wider perspective, I find that most of the diversity that Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson (2016) write about or the diversity I experience when I leave my home is not represented. Because diverse intersectional representations are generally missing from the municipality homepages, this an area in need of improvement.
In the category of group photos with women and men, the group photos are counted again, regardless if they are heterogeneous or homogeneous, if they depict both genders together. I found that half (eight out of 16) municipalities display photos of groups where the genders are mixed on their homepage. Compared with the heterogeneous group photos, there are more representations of mixed gender groups, but it could still be improved upon as well (Appendix, Table 1).
Gender equality? Women and men on the homepages.
On the homepages I also simply counted how many photos there were with only one gender represented (Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson, 2016). Nine municipalities show photos of only man/men, while eight show photos depicting only woman/women (Appendix, Table 1). So here we find the ”slight underrepresentation of women” (Kay et al., 2015, p. 3820) online that Kay et al. (2015) wrote about. When counting the total amount of photos instead with only one gender represented, in the whole county of Värmland the result is encouragingly almost equal. However it is not a almost equal representation per homepage across the board. Some municipalities show photos of just one gender. Grums and Forshaga for instance have photos with just women in them, while others, Hagfors municipality show photos of just men on their homepages (Appendix, Table 1). Why these municipalities chose to only depict only one gender on their homepage, is interesting and could perhaps be answered in a future study.
As I wrote in the chapter where I explain how I collected my empirical material of this text, the categories active men or active women count individuals who are represented as actively doing something, often working, but not always, as the homepages are presenting photos in a variety of contexts. Here what I registered as important was that women and men were interacting with their environment and with other individuals in the photos rather than posing passively as exemplified by Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson (2016), Sveriges Kvinnolobby (2013) and Region Värmland (2016). When I moved on to analysing specifically active representations, not only gender representations (described above) the websites were no longer almost equal. What I found instead was that only five of the in total 16 municipalities have an equal number of active men and active women on their homepage, (Karlstad, Hammarö, Årjäng, Eda and Munkfors). There were also some interesting divergent results (also mentioned above), three municipalities (Forshaga, Grums and Storfors) only have photos of active women, while two municipalities (Arvika and Hagfors) only have photos of active men (Appendix, Table 1). What I also discovered was that even though three
municipalities show only active women on their homepages, the total amount of photos of active women still does not equal the total number of photos of active men on the homepages in the whole county of Värmland. I therefore conclude that what Singh et al. (2020) found in
their research, holds true for my study as well, that in photos online there are more men represented in general (p. 10).
One activity that I felt was featured in the homepages was parents interacting with children. Many municipalities represent themselves with photos of children of various ages particularly on their homepage. This was not a focus of my study, future research could examine how gender stereotypical these representations are, for example if there are more images of women with children? Perhaps there are so many photos of children because the municipalities wish to attract a certain target group of residents by signaling family
friendliness? To populate the municipalities and stifle the current depopulation trend (Region Värmland, 2014, p. 11). In my opinion I think they succeed in conveying family friendliness, however, the prevalent representation of whiteness is not limited to the adults in the photos, the majority of the children represented were also white.
Something else noteworthy on the positive side though is that these children who were often depicted accompanied by a single parent, or with older siblings or friends, is moving away from the most stereotypical of family constellations, with a mom and a dad (Region Värmland, 2016, p. 24). Sometimes the children were in the company of two adults of the same gender but obvious [my translation] “rainbow families” (Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson, 2016, p. 9) were completely missing. Not only are parents in Värmland county represented as heteronormative but they are also for the most part in the middle of their life in terms of age (Calasanti et al., 2006).
Introduction to analysis municipality business and work page. (Table 2).
On their business and work pages a majority of the municipalities displayed information about vacancies in the labour market, as well as information specific to entrepreneurs. To attract new businesses to the municipality or inspire individuals to start their own business, or to grow the business is the county is one of the a goals presented by Region Värmland (2014, p. 19). And the different municipalities seem to have embraced that, judging from the content on the business and work pages. Most of them also communicate with photos, there are two
exceptions; Årjäng municipality has three movies instead and Torsby municipality has only text.
Diversity and equality? Group photos on the business and work page.
Again 9 municipalities out of the 16 show group photos of either heterogeneous or
homogeneous groups or both. There are 23 individual group photos in total on the business and work pages, so less than on the municipality homepages. Noteworthy is that again there are only 5 photos of heterogeneous groups in total, the same amount as on the municipality homepages (Appendix, Table 2). So photos and therefore representations of diverse groups are again underrepresented in the context of business and work. That leaves a lot to be desired. Still the only identifiable intersecting identity categories that are represented are ethnicity and gender (Levine-Rasky, 2011, p. 241).
Because homogenous group photos are in the majority on the business and work pages as well, the pattern from the municipality homepages repeats itself. Further determining and signifying the stereotype of whiteness as the norm in the municipalities in the county of Värmland (Hall, 2013, p. 259), as well as continuing to repeat that message of who is included (normative) and who i excluded (different) (Hall, 2013, p. 248).
On a positive note it is however worth mentioning that the heterogeneous group photos are more widely distributed amongst the municipalities on the business and work pages
compared to the homepage findings, which could be seen as improvement. Karlstad and Säffle are now joined by Kristinehamn and Filipstad, all representing at least some diversity with one heterogenous group each (Karlstad has two) on their business and work page (Appendix, Table 2).
As I did when analysing the homepages I also counted group photos of women and men, and found roughly the same results on the business and work pages. Again eight municipalities (half) show photos with mixed gender groups. In total there are 16 photos (of mix gender groups) two more than on the homepages that had 14 photos in total, a minimal but at least
something of an increase (Appendix, Table 1, Table 2). It seems again comparing the findings for heterogeneous group photos with the mixed gender group photos, that when the only identity category in focus is gender (and not intersectional gender) one finds more representations.
Photos of hands.
I have already shared some of my reflections about the predominant representation of white people in the photos in my analysis of the municipality homepages. I feel like this partly because of the many featured homogeneous groups, but also because of the use of only white hands, that were present on both the municipality homepages and on the pages related to business and work. Because I think many of the photos have content depicting situations related to business and work it made sense to me to analyse these photos in this segment. For instance a photo of a white hand holding a judges mallet (Figure 3), or signing a contract (Figure 4), or shaking another white hand (Figure 7), makes me associate whiteness with power and decision making opportunities (Crenshaw, 1989), (Acker, 2012). This
representation connects whiteness not only with being the norm and in majority but also with being on top of the power structure in society (Crenshaw, 1989), (Hall, 2013). Again Gävle kommun & Gunnarsson (2016) support Hall’s (2013) argument when they state that (my translation) “images- as well as role models- show us what is possible” (p. 6), here the photos of the white hands connect whiteness with possibilities, access to resources and opportunities, participation and belonging in society. Making me wonder about the possibilities for
non-white hands, because I know that they participate and belong in society as well, yet they are not represented in the photos I analysed on the municipality homepages or on the pages related to business and work.
Figure 3. Kil kommun. (n.d.). Välkommen till Kils kommun [Screenshot by author]. Retrieved from https://www.kil.se
Figure 4. Filipstad kommun. (n.d.). Näringsliv och arbete - Filipstads kommun [Screenshot by author]. Retrieved from https://www.filipstad.se/toppmeny/naringslivarbete.1195.html
Sometimes I was able to categorise the hands according to gender, by looking at gender stereotypical attributes present in the photo, sometimes I could not. Examples of gender stereotypical attributes that I saw for hands were long nails painted with nail polish or a huge diamond engagement ring traditionally female attributes. I also saw many navy blue suits paired with white shirt cuffs and shiny big watches, traditionally male attributes (Döring & Pöschl, 2006). Together with the described attributes and clothing and the context of these photos convey a message in line with Acker’s (2012) argument, that white men are usually found acting in and from positions of power in organisations (Acker, 2012, p. 221). The female hands varied more, sometimes they were as active in the same context as the male hands, shaking other hands or working (Figure 7). Other times they were depicted in a more stereotypical or traditional female context, for instance holding another pair of (older) hands in a comforting way (Figure 6) or pouring a cup of tea (Figure 5). This I feel is in line with the tendencies observed by Döring & Pöschl (2006) in the context of advertising as well, that representations of women are more varied (than those of men) and that they are sometimes strengthening and other times countering gender stereotypes.
