Author: admintemplate

Categories
Mitigating segregation

Doctoral dissertation on the reproduction of occupational segregation

Occupational segregation, the systematic concentration of different demographic groups in different fields and occupations, is strong in Finland. My research shows that gendered and racialised stereotypical assumptions reproduce segregation in vocational education.

Persistent stereotypes still shape who does which jobs in Finland

For instance, the level of gender segregation is regularly measured in Finland, and it continues to be strong. Recently, some studies have claimed that differing interests and ability perceptions reproduce gender segregation.

Tanhua’s research shows how stereotypical assumptions lead to segregation. They also influence the development of interest.

“For example, the images associated with technology education are gendered, which affects who becomes interested in these programmes and how they are perceived within them,” Tanhua explains.

Although stereotypes are persistent, gender stereotypes associated with a particular profession can change.

“This means that women do not have an innate lack of interest in performing tasks seen as masculine; rather, their desire to take on these roles depends on the situation and how they are treated at work,” Tanhua summarises.

Their study also includes transgender and non-binary students. According to Tanhua, it’s important to address gender-based divisions other than the one between women and men. An example of segregation among trans and non-binary people is that they often avoid men-dominated fields.

“The experiences of transgender and non-binary students are marked by a lack of recognition – in other words, they are not always recognised and valued for who they are,” Tanhua explains.

This also affects their choice of career and their studies, as situations in which they feel valued for who they are become very important.

The perceptions associated with migrants are also rife with stereotypes. Tanhua points out that one example of a stereotypical generalisation is the claim that vocational school is suitable for migrants.

“The downside of these seemingly positive discourses is that high school and university are, in a sense, deemed unsuitable. The assumptions of who is considered a migrant also reflect racialisation, and discrimination can be hidden behind discourses that emphasise language skills,” Tanhua adds.

You can read this press release also in Swedish.

More information

You can read the whole thesis here: Tanhua (2026) (Re)producing occupational segregation: Discourses and experiences of exclusion in vocational education, Doctoral dissertation, Hanken School of Economics.

Article 1: Tanhua (2023) The gendering of technology education: minority ethnic students’ experiences of a women-dominated vocational dental technology programme, NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 31:3, 264–278.

Article 2: Tanhua (2026) Trans and nonbinary students’ experiences of unrecognition: What can teacher allies do better? Organization, 00:00, 1–22.

Article 3: Tanhua (2025) Racialised discourses on migrants and language skills in Finnish vocational education, Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 00:00, 1–18.

The defence

The defence took place at Hanken School of Economics on May 22, 2026.

Opponent: Professor Sara Louise Muhr, Copenhagen Business School

Kustos: Professor Janne Tienari, Hanken School of Economics

Categories
Gender in education

How does it feel to be unrecognised? The experiences of trans and nonbinary students

My article on the experiences of trans and nonbinary students was recently published in the journal Organization. In the article, I explore the experience of not being recognized—that is, when one is not seen as one’s true self or even as a human being at all. I also ask what teachers could do better. You can read the full article here: Tanhua (2026) Trans and nonbinary students’ experiences of unrecognition: What can teacher allies do better?

An example on unrecognition

Adrian (pseudonym): The first thing that happened to me when I applied to this school and was interviewed as part of the application process was that the teacher doing the interviews asked, even before introducing herself or anything, she looked at me for a long time and then asked: “Are you a boy or a girl?”

The teacher’s question about whether Adrian is a boy or a girl reflects a binary gender norm: one should be either a boy or a girl. The fact that this question was asked right at the beginning of the interview speaks to the strength of this norm. The teacher had difficulty seeing a person who did not fit the norm as a human being or, for example, as one of our future students. Adrian, who is non-binary, was unrecognized.

However, this example isn’t entirely a sad one. They managed to move past the difficult situation during the interview, and Adrian was ultimately able to be open during the interview and was accepted into the program. Openness and building rapport after being unrecognized requires courage and often also previous positive experiences and encouragement.

What is recognition?

By recognition, I refer to the concept used by Judith Butler and Georg Hegel (1770–1831). Being recognised feels good, and people crave it. Examples of recognition include getting positive feedback from a teacher for a job well done or being appreciated by one’s classmates as a good friend.

Recognition shapes our sense of self and our identity. It also shows how much we depend on others in the process of forming our own identity.

According to Butler, recognition is always partial: no one can ever be fully and correctly seen. At times, recognition can be misrecognition—that means, for instance, that people see a transphobic stereotype instead of a person. According to Butler, recognition is also conditional; we are recognised only when we manage to meet certain norms of appearance and behaviour. For example, in a society dominated by binary gender norms, it is more difficult for a non-binary person to be recognised.

What is new here?

Previous research drawing on the experiences of trans and nonbinary people within organisation studies has often examined how transgender individuals express their gender at work and whether they can challenge gender norms. These studies have provided diverse insights into how trans people often have to negotiate their gender and its expression. Challenging norms is not easy.

However, I wanted to take another perspective. I’m looking at how trans people feel they are recognised—or not recognised—within organisations. I see that their recognition is in the hands of others, and thus the development of equality within organisations and the breaking down of norms are, above all, the responsibility of others.

In my article, I also continue the discussion on allyship and supportive solidarity. In addition to the students, I interviewed their teachers. Teachers interviewed are allies in the sense that they want to support their trans and nonbinary students. However, social norms limited their understanding as well.

What could teachers do better?

Above all, students wanted teachers to intervene when they witnessed violence and bullying, such as transphobic comments and intentional misgendering. Addressing these issues gives students the courage to bring up other, more subtle problems as well. In a hostile atmosphere, that is impossible.

Many small changes can help prevent students from experiencing unrecognition. For example, teachers should not address students as “girls and boys” or “women and men”; they should be allowed to use the name of their choice; and it should be easy to update one’s gender and name in information systems.

Trans and nonbinary students felt most recognised when teaching challenged gender binaries. In these instances, they realised that their ability to think beyond gender norms could be a strength. Their personal gender identity and professional identity became positively intertwined.

Further information

Read the full article on which this blog post is based: Tanhua (2026) Trans and nonbinary students’ experiences of unrecognition: What can teacher allies do better? Organization, published online 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084261447962

The article is part of my dissertation, of which you can also read more in another blog post.

Read more about recognition and Judith Butler

Ikäheimo, Heikki; Lepold, Kristina, and Stahl, Titus (eds.) (2021) Recognition and Ambivalence. Columbia University Press. This book provides relatively accessible information on recognition and includes a chapter by Butler titled “Recognition and the Social Bond.”

Butler, Judith (2024) Who’s Afraid of Gender? Straus and Giroux. This is Butler’s latest book, in which they explore gender norms. The book has also been translated into Finnish under the title “Kuka pelkää sukupuolta?”

A YouTube video in which Jack Halberstam interviews Judith Butler about their new book, and Butler also mentions that they can be categorised as nonbinary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLv2wK0Eqs

Explore organizational research on the experiences of transgender people

Good examples of studies that discuss how gender is done or performed by trans people:

Connell, Catherine (2010) Doing, undoing, or redoing gender? Learning from the workplace experiences of transpeople. Gender & Society 24(1): 31–55.

Muhr, Sara Louise; Sullivan, Katie Rose ja Rich, Craig (2016) Situated transgressiveness: Exploring one transwoman’s lived experiences across three situated contexts. Gender Work and Organization 23(1): 52–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12093

Thanem, Torkild; Wallenberg, Louise (2016) Just doing gender? Transvestism and the power of underdoing gender in everyday life and work. Organization 23(2): 250–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508414547559

Jeanes, Emma; Janes, Kristy (2021) Trans men doing gender at work. Gender Work and Organization 28(4): 1237–1259. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12675

Other perspectives on the experiences of transgender and non-binary people within organisation studies:

O’Shea, Saoirse Caitlin (2020) Working at gender? An autoethnography. Gender Work and Organization 27(6): 1438–1449. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12513. In this article, O’Shea draws on their own experiences to describe how much work their nonbinary gender requires due to other people’s reactions, and how these experiences are linked to employment and unemployment.

Tyler, Melissa; Vachhani Sheena (2021) Chasing rainbows? A recognition-based critique of Primark’s precarious commitment to inclusion. Organization 28(2): 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508420961530. The article shows that corporate marketing campaigns—such as those promoting Pride merchandise—do not yet guarantee that transgender people will be recognised and treated well as employees.

Odland, Toby (2025) Re-framing in Friction. On Trans-inclusive Enactment of Gender Equality Aims. Linköping University. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3384/9789180759519. The dissertation examines how gender equality workers in Sweden seek to incorporate practices that improve the equality of trans and nonbinary people into gender equality work, which at times relies on binary conceptions of gender.

Acknowledgements regarding funding

Thank you to the foundations that supported my dissertation: Ami Foundation, Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, Hanken Foundation, the Business Education Fund, and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation. I would also like to thank the SEGLI project, funded by the European Social Fund, as part of which I conducted the interviews.

Categories
Environment and gender

Nordic collaboration on climate action

This Nordic project explored how we can improve our cooperation in the future to mainstream the gender perspective in efforts to combat climate change and in the green transition. The project is linked to the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Gender Action Plan (GAP) in the Nordic countries.

In April 2024, the project published a report A review of the Nordic implementation of the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan. The report describes the status and practices of gender mainstreaming in Nordic climate policy.

Watch the presentation of the report

We presented the report at a hybrid event on May 6, 2024. You can watch the recording here (in Finnish with subtitles). The presentation showcases the report’s findings, with a particular focus on promoting gender equality in Finland’s climate policy.

Webinars held in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are also available for viewing. There is also an English version of the presentation.

More information

The Finnish component of the project is being carried out by Ekvalita and Equality Research Helsinki. The project as a whole is led by the Danish firm Norion Consult.

The report is part of an assessment commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers on the implementation of the UN Climate Change Agreement’s gender equality plan in the Nordic countries.

Further information on the intersections between gender equality and climate action can also be found in the EU Mutual Learning program: The synergies between gender equality and climate action – The Netherlands – February 21–22, 2024

Categories
Mitigating segregation

The gendering of technology continues (in new ways)

My article on the gendering of technology education was published online in December 2022 and in print in 2023 in NORA (Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research). The article focuses on dental technology, which is a women-dominated technology programme. You can download the full text here: Tanhua (2023) The Gendering of Technology Education: minority Ethnic Students’ Experiences of a Women-Dominated Vocational Dental Technology Programme.

Does technology have to have a gender?

It would be great if the stereotypes associated with technology weren’t so gendered. That would make it easier for everyone to feel that any technology-related programme or occupation is suitable for them. Unfortunately, however, technology does have a gender, specifically in the sense that different technologies and technology-related programmes and occupations are perceived either as masculine or feminine.

Many researchers have demonstrated how technology is associated with men and masculinities (Cockburn, 1985; Faulkner, 2000; Mellström, 2002; Vehviläinen, 2005; Wajcman, 2010). Marja Vehviläinen (2015) also points out that although the gendered nature of technology has been extensively studied, it is often denied in everyday conversation.

As one example of the gendering of technology, Faulkner (2000, 2001) points out that we often perceive the technical and the social as opposites and associate the former more with men and the latter more with women. This may lead, for example, to the kind of thinking that suggests one should not choose a technology-related occupation if one is socially gifted. This association is, of course, highly stereotypical; in reality, many tech jobs require social skills, such as the ability to work in teams.

Dental technology can be perceived as both feminine and masculine

Of course, not all technical fields are considered exclusively masculine or associated with men. Dental technology is a good example of this. The field is dominated by women, and the students I interviewed for my article described the subject in both masculine and feminine terms.

The main discourse defining dental technology as a women-dominated field was the portrayal of the work as detailed work done with one’s hands. For many of the students interviewed, the image of detailed work with small instruments had been a key reason for choosing the programme.

However, dental technology requires not only precision but also physical strength, and it involves the use of large machines. Some of the work steps are also messy. In particular, women studying in the field reported that these aspects of dental technology had come as a surprise to them during their training. However, they were not discouraged by the fact that their field included tasks considered masculine; rather, they were proud to have learned these skills as well.

Practical implications

Although the women studying dental technology had chosen the field based on its feminine image, they were willing to accept that the actual work did not fully match that image. This observation points to potential for change. Women (including those who identify as feminine) are open to all kinds of jobs in the technical field, as long as they can familiarise themselves with the work and see it as fitting their own identity.

Educational providers and employers looking to hire new employees can draw on a wide range of images. These images can be played with, allowing many fields to appear both masculine and feminine. Of course, it is also important to present as accurate a picture as possible of each field and job.

It is important to note that not all technology-related fields are dominated by men. Even tech fields with a majority of women should be referred to as technology-related fields and taken into account when discussing the men-dominated nature of tech fields and gender segregation in the workforce. Taking this into account may encourage women to consider all tech fields as potential career options.

What is new here?

Although the gender segregation of technology-related fields has been extensively studied since the 1980s, there is still very little research on how women-dominated technical fields become gender-segregated. Further research on this topic is therefore needed! Furthermore, to my knowledge, this topic has not been studied in the context of vocational education and training (VET) prior to this article.

One good example of research focusing on higher education institutions is the dissertation written by Andreas Ottemo at the University of Gothenburg. Ottemo noted that chemical engineering is often viewed as a field with a high proportion of women, yet it is also considered by both students and faculty to be an extremely technical and difficult field. Why do women choose one of the most difficult tech fields?

According to Ottemo, women in particular are drawn to studying chemical engineering because, in their minds, the field is linked to the chemistry courses and laboratory work they did in high school and general upper-secondary school. For many students, the technology-related nature of the programme only became apparent during their studies. However, they felt content in their chosen programme, and the student culture had developed in such a way that it supported a wide variety of students. Just like the dental technology students, these students had found fulfillment in the tech programme, even though they had initially chosen it based on somewhat incomplete impressions.

Another new point raised in the article is the intersectional approach. In vocational education, and particularly in dental technology programmes, there are many students who have moved to Finland as adults. In total, I interviewed 11 dental technology students, and 9 of them had moved to Finland as adults or teenagers. These students were extremely concerned about their employment prospects. The three migrant men in the programme had faced even more difficulties than the women.

Methods

For this article, I interviewed dental technology students. The interviewees were selected from a single class of students studying dental technology in a programme for students with a basic education. Eleven of the class’s twelve students participated in the interviews. Of the students interviewed, 8 were women and 3 were men. The interviews were analysed using discourse analysis.

The interviews were conducted as part of the European Social Fund’s SEGLI project, which investigated the reasons behind the gender-based division of labour in the workforce and in education. Further analysis and the article are part of my PhD work at Hanken School of Economics. The writing of the article was supported by the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and the Foundation for Economic Education.

More information

Read the full article on which this blog post is based here: Tanhua (2023) The Gendering of Technology Education: minority Ethnic Students’ Experiences of a Women-Dominated Vocational Dental Technology Programme

Read Wendy Faulkner’s (2000) article Dualisms, Hierarchies and Gender in Engineering on the dichotomies in our thinking, or borrow the book Tieto, tiede ja sukupuoli (2015), in which Marja Vehviläinen fluently summarises international literature in Finnish in the chapter “Teknologian miehisten käytäntöjen jäljillä: teknologian sukupuolen tutkimuksesta”.

Check out this recent Nordic study

Andreas Ottemo’s (2015), doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Gothenburg: Kön, Kropp, Begär Och Teknik: Passion Och Instrumentalitet På Två Tekniska Högskoleprogram [Gender, Body, Desire, and Technology: Passion and Instrumentality in Two Technical University Programs]

Julia Orupabo’s (2018) article, Cultural stereotypes and professional self-socialisation in the transition from education to work analyses the experiences of students in information technology, biomedicine, and nursing in Norway.

Take advantage of the best practices developed in projects (in Finnish)

Ota käyttöön NAU-hankkeen laatimia tekniikan alan tasa-arvon edistämisen keinoja, sekä lue blogeja ja uratarinoita tekniikan alalta.

Seuraa terveyden ja hyvinvoinninlaitoksen hanketta Segregaation purku – työkaluja tasa-arvoisempaan työelämään ja lue hankkeen blogiteksti Jokaisella työpaikalla tulisi olla käytössä keinoja sukupuolen mukaisen eriytymisen purkamiseksi.

Lue SEGLI-hankkeen (2016-2019) julkaisut Miksi sukupuoli vaikuttaa alavalintaan? ja Koulutusvalintoihin vaikuttaneet syyt kahdella erilaisella teknisellä alalla, sekä selaa hankkeen oppilaitosten kanssa kehittämiä käytäntöjä segregaation purkamiseksi.