Att våga väga jämnt om kvalifikationer och kvinnliga förhållningssätt i ett tekniskt industriarbete

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this dissertation is to explore the meaning of gender in relation to qualifications and skills. In the dissertation two specific problem areas are explored in-depth:
1 - The meaning of gender in relation to qualifications and skills in technical industrial work.
2- The manifestations and contents of women's ways of relating interpreted as a type of non-formal skills. Empirical data were collected mainly through semi-structured indepth interviews with women (Project 40 girls) with a tailored vocational training for technical operational and maintenance work in the new coachworkshop at Saab-Scania in Trollhättan. Male work-mates as well as supervisors and key informants in the factory were also interviewed. A mainly qualitative methodological approach of grounded theory type was used for analysing the data. Theoretically the dissertation has been inspired by the Nordic feminist discussion on gender, work and rationality and the concept of responsible rationality is used to explain women's ways of relating to work. The data show that women develop an adjusted form of responsible rationality in this technical industrial work situation expressed in three care dimensions: Care for interpersonal relations at work, care for the human being in the man - machine relation and care in relation to the machine, the product and the workplace. Women's ways of relating to work also included a holistic perspective expressed in integrating both the private sphere and the work sphere in the social dialogue at work. The most conspicuous gender difference in the study is the difference in importance women and men give social skills at work. In general the women in the study emphasized the need for social skills more than the men did. The female responsible rationality is in this way reflected in the women's views on important skills at work. Another main result is that the need for social skills such as abilities to co-operate and communicate were seen as more important by both women and men the more complex technical systems they worked with. (Svensk text med sammanfattning på engelska )