Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Holmen Skog has only five out of 70 wood buyers who are women, This report is seen as a step in the process towards gender balance in the company. This is a problem that is equal over the entire forest industry in Sweden. They all think that sexual equal workplaces are very important to remain competitive, see things from different perspectives and development of the company.
The survey was done by sending out questionnaires to all women who work and have worked as a wood buyer at Holmen, and as many men of both categories. These four categories became a total of twenty persons. To map the industry another questionnaire was sent out to the six largest forest companies in Sweden.
The survey found that female wood buyers not finished their work earlier than men did, as they thought before. What makes women and men feel comfortable in this profession is the feeling of freedom with responsibility, the possibility to control the days of work and the opportunity to be outdoor. What the both gender is missing in the profession is daily contact with colleagues, high salary and a calm working pace. Those who quit felt more often stressed and that they could not combine family, leisure and work in a balanced way, compared with those who still work as wood buyers. Of all women have almost 40 percent, 20 percent of men, experienced sexism in their meeting with forest owners, but not in contact with employees and contractors. Men have never felt discriminated associated with their profession, but it has 33 percent of women.
To increase the number of female wood buyers at Holmen Skog is my solution to inform what the profession means before recruitment, creating a sense of commonality through female network and common goals current timber volumes, prevent stress, encourage women’s work, to set clear goals to work against and work with the policy of equality and diversity and to try to reach all the way to the forest owners with it.