The Umbrella Project – taking a stand against discrimination in working life

The aim of the Umbrella Project is to increase interest, awareness and knowledge about diversity at work and the processes behind exclusion and discrimination. The project combats all kinds of discrimination in working life, but specifically in relation to the grounds covered in the legislation on discrimination gender, ethnicity, age, mental and psychical disability and sexuality.

“One important goal is to puncture the myths associated with groups that are excluded from the labour market,” says Owe Ivarsson, the coordinator of the project.

Tools that are used to accomplish the project’s aspirations include a weekly magazine on the Internet, several books and continuous seminars. These are all strictly focused on influencing and affecting decision makers, the media debate and public opinion.

The most important thing is to change behaviours and attitudes in society. In practice, there is a large gap between what is considered to be politically correct and the attitudes to discrimination that in fact exist at the workplace. Creators of public opinion such as politicians, representatives of the social partners and cultural and sports personalities can be important role models in the effort to change attitudes. It is also important to highlight any cases that demonstrate that diversity can be profitable. At the same time, it is vital to apply a critical view in order to reveal unacceptable attitudes or behaviours.

Equal is the programme behind The Umbrella Project. It is a European Union venture that aims to strengthen the position of individuals in their working lives and thus contribute to growth and increasing employment. The goal of the programme is also to counteract all kinds of discrimination, both in working life and in the community. The Equal Programme is founded and sponsored by the European Social Fund.
The Umbrella Project involves cooperation between the National Federation of Disabled Persons, the Scandia insurance company, the Federation of Social Insurance Offices, the Union of Civil Servants, the Swedish Sports Confederation and Equal partners HB.

“A diverse combination that ensures new and imaginative ideas,” says Owe Ivarsson.

The Umbrella Project is associated with a transnational partnership together with projects in France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The idea of the transnational cooperation is partly to broaden certain information activities by adding information material from other EU countries, and partly to adopt a deeper system perspective by comparing the situation of marginalized groups in different countries.

The magazine
Every week, the Umbrella Project magazine publishes new reports, articles and news items that are effective in the work against discrimination on the labour market. The intention is to uncover the problems of discrimination that are fundamentally rooted in preconceptions, routines and customs.

Along with every publication, a news letter is sent out to a large database of decision makers, social workers, academics, those who work with discrimination, the media and other people that may have an interest in, and a use for, the contents of the magazine. On several occasions, the contents of the magazine have influenced a discussion in the traditional media such as the major Swedish television channels and the newspapers. The biggest readers of the magazine are other media and professionals in the discrimination field.

“With strong, bright and sharp articles we want to set fire to the debate and we always stand on the side of the vulnerable groups in the community,” says Marie Eriksson, journalist and editor of the magazine. “It’s also important for us to be one step ahead in the discrimination area and to find exclusive news that goes on to the large established media companies, news that otherwise may not get space in the news flow,” she adds.

Both positive and negative aspects of the discrimination area are illuminated through the magazine. Reports on other Equal projects are also a recurring component.

Please read a selection of our articles here.

Footnote: The survey that The Umbrella Project has conducted and that is described in the article “Five percent of upper-secondary school textbooks are written by women” is one of the articles that has had a powerful breakthrough in other media, it was for example discussed in the morning news programme of the established channel TV4. The article regarding oppression and crime committed in the name of honour, with other articles about this subject, has also several times instigated a much needed discussion in other media forums, for example the public service radio’s news programme “Ekot”.

Books
To show that diversity can be profitable, The Umbrella Project produced the books “Think for yourselves - a book about diversity” and “Think for yourselves - about broad-minded recruitment”.

Discrimination often arises without conscious thought, it happens automatically. In the recruitment processes it is common that not only qualifications are estimated. The purpose of the books has been to inspire company leaders, personnel managers, those with recruitment responsibility, students and everybody else that wants a more open labour market. The books give tips and advice on how to think in order to be successful in this matter. Discussions and thoughts about how to create a workplace for all kinds of people are presented from different perspectives by several authors, some of them with their own experience of discrimination.

At the moment of writing, The Umbrella Project is working on two new books, soon to be published. One of these books, “Tokig på jobbet- om psykisk ohälsa och återhämtning på jobbet”, (“Crazy at work – on mental illness and recovery at work”) will focus on mental illness and work. The other is still in the creation process but is expected to discuss whether Sweden does or does not adopt good examples from other cultures.

A book with a collection of articles about oppression and crime committed in the name of honour will also be produced in the near future.

Seminars
Seminars on current topics are held continuously, and they are very much appreciated. Those who attend the seminars are politicians, people from the trade union movement, legal experts, journalists, all kinds of scientists, social workers and so on. Some of the topics that have been discussed at the seminars are salary differences between women and men, elderly peoples’ capacity to work and not be excluded from the labour market, women’s health and sickness in work life, homophobia in the sports sector, how people with physical illnesses are described in the media, the right to wear religious symbols at the workplace and attitudes against people with language difficulties.

Please read an article from a seminar here.

Other activities
Attitudes are formed at an early age and become important norms and standards for pupils. Education has a significant role in this process. This is why The Umbrella Project also focuses on schools at all levels, mainly through the magazine and seminars. The Umbrella Project makes a special effort with regard to future journalists by receiving one or two trainees from different journalism courses at the university level every term.

In this way, the project can contribute to the formation of future journalists and their knowledge and awareness of diversity in working life and generally. It is of great value for journalists to have a good insight into the issue of diversity as journalists are involved in creating public opinion.

The Umbrella Project also offers scholarships and support to those who conduct research and write their master’s thesis or degree project on diversity or other subjects in Equal’s interest area. This support has mainly concerned students on the theoretical courses of the journalism programme at the Mid Sweden University, with which The Umbrella Project has a close cooperation, but the scholarships are open for all university courses that may be of importance to the Equal topics. The project also supports a web-based university course on diversity, which is held at the Mid Sweden University.

By attending trade fairs and meetings with organisations and relevant people, The Umbrella Project informs and spreads knowledge about the work against discrimination. Good cooperation is also maintained with different non-governmental organisations to create a long-term effect of the results of the work and to strengthen the output of the project.