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. » Read more

Ludvig Rasmusson åker gärna och ofta till Paris men här är han fångad i Bryssel. Foto: Owe Ivarsson.

Learning from Europe - Portraits of returning Swedes

During 2005 slightly more than 65 000 persons came to Sweden. The largest group was made up of some 14 000 Swedes returning home. The personal portraits depicted by the journalist and author, Ludvig Rasmusson, and the photographer, Ulla Montan in a new book. Foreword by Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission. » Read more

Photo: Jörgen Rönn.

Samhall – sheltered or outmoded?

”Hopelessly behind the times“. ”The company has had it far too good for far too long“. ”Is its existence justified? Not really, well perhaps, but only if it is slimmed right down and given a proper facelift.“ Samhall, a State-owned company that offers sheltered employment to the disabled, has been widely criticised in many quarters over the years, for example in a recent government enquiry. ”We are open to major changes,“ says the company’s Information Director, Anna-Karin Hedlund, ”and to competition.“ » Read more

Monica Quinteiro. Photo: Marie Eriksson.

Mine manager Monica - a pioneer among the men

Monica Quinteiro is the first woman to become a mine manager in Sweden. She works for the mining company LKAB, Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB, in Kiruna:”When jokes about women and sex are coming so thick and fast that you can’t work, then things have gone too far,“ she says. » Read more

Victória Mohácsi. Foto: Marie Eriksson

”Do you know why we kill Romanies in our country?“

”There was a real rumpus initially,“ says Victória Mohácsi, the only Romany Member of the European Parliament. ”Other MEPs claimed that ”Romanies are no worse off than other vulnerable groups.“ They didn’t know that Romany children are put into mental institutions solely because of their origin, or that many Romanies have no civil rights at all.“ » Read more

EU-projektet i Skåne. Foto: Marie Eriksson.

Romany women face opposition from authorities in Skåne

The idea was that a number of Romany women would quietly sign on the dotted line and authorise the local authority’s recently-appointed integration expert to access information about them without him needing to explain why. But, there was no way that was going to happen, not after the women had increased their self-esteem and self-confidence in a new EU training project. » Read more

Foto: Marie Eriksson.

Romanies stopped by the Municipality of Staffanstorp

”These women are already involved in a project that takes care of them,“ says Tamas Matray, a recently-appointed co-ordinator in the Social Services Department of the Municipality of Staffanstorp. Last week, the Umbrella Project reported on a number of Romany women in a new EU project who feel that they are being discriminated against in Staffanstorp. Those involved respond to this criticism below. » Read more

Double the guilt, double the shame – convicted women

Being given your first shot of heroin by your mother when you are ten years old and then, years later, stepping outside the prison walls with only a plastic bag in your hand and nowhere to go - this can be the fate of a woman who is released from prison in Sweden today. The Equal project Better Release has tried to do something about this. » Read more

Five per cent of upper-secondary school textbooks are written by women

The books that upper-secondary school students read in school are written by men. Although there is no rule without exceptions, books written exclusively by women can in fact be called an exception. The Umbrella Project has conducted a detailed study of the situation. » Read more

Standing out in a crowd

480 women sounds like a fairly large group of people, but compared to 18 000 men it is perhaps not so large after all. Jenny Öhlund, one of Sweden’s female housepainters, enjoys being a little special and different. » Read more

A handbook in hushing things up

How can you effectively put a lid on a debate? How can you get journalists to write less about something, or not at all? Simple: You call them racists, or say that they are highly prejudiced and xenophobic. You claim that they lack respect for other cultures, or are ignorant about them. You can also hint that they are fellow travellers for some fringe political party with a shady agenda. » Read more

Honour-related violence – not a point of honour for the National CID

Despite the fact that Kickis Åhré Älgamo’s post as the National Criminal Investigation Department’s only expert on honour-related violence was phased out in May, and despite the fact that she is on parental leave, police districts throughout the country are continually calling to ask for her help. Kickis Åhré Älgamo's final draft of a handbook on honour-related violence for police officers has got caught up in the machinery at the National CID and has not reached officers working in the field. » Read more

Homophobia in the Swedish idyll

”What we need is a heterosexual man in a leading position to say that homosexuality is OK,“ says social worker Hans Knutagård. He also declares that:
”You can’t be a racist or a homophobe if you believe in democracy.“
”Most of those I meet still don’t dare to come out at work and this silence is destructive,“ says psychologist Elisabet Nidsjö.
Both Hans and Elisabet work for the advisory service of the Swedish Federation for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) in Skåne. » Read more

How old is old?

”I’m the personification of the plug in the pipeline,“ said Eva Marling, a former television journalist who will soon celebrate her 65th birthday.
She is one of the members of the so-called ”Meat Mountain“ who attended the Umbrella Project’s breakfast debate on work and the elderly on 16 December in Stockholm. » Read more

Promoting health and well-being to keep older people at work

”Employees that have worked for a long time have a great deal of expertise and know-how and have developed fantastic customer relations. We want to make sure that this knowledge and experience is passed on,“ said Human Resources Director Göran Theodorsson at Prevents 50+ conference, which was held on 2 December in Stockholm. » Read more

Labelled and ready for final storage – the mental patient who dared to speak out

Good sense and good manners do not always go hand in hand. Sorting people into little boxes and sticking a label on them on them can sometimes lead to crazy results, as in Annika Malmqvist’s case:
”The only person who held out any hope for me was me.“
For many years, she was diagnosed as severely and incurably schizophrenic. Today, she lectures on mental health issues and debates these issues with politicians. » Read more

Don’t fall asleep in court

A lay judge is supposed to represent the people and reflect the structure of society as a whole. This is not the case today. Immigrants and young people are poorly represented.
”The least we can ask is that the lay judges should not fall asleep during the court proceedings,“ says prosecutor Katarina Lenter.
Politicians do not want lay judges who have a criminal record or are too keen on hash, nor those who are professed racists. » Read more