Investigate your own environment

The work carried out to promote equal rights and opportunities must take into consideration the organisational setup. According to the Discrimination Act, the work should be carried out systematically in the four stages (investigate, analyse, action and follow up). Start by investigating the current situation and the norms in your organisation following which, the objectives and measures needed to improve the situation are formulated.

The following questions may be useful to conduct the preventive work:

Knowledge

Are the employees and students at the department/program familiar with the different grounds of discrimination?
Do we need to know more about any of the grounds of discrimination?
Do we have / take the time and resources we need to increase our knowledge?

Power distribution

Who decides what is valuable?
What is the proportion of women and men involved in decision-making process?
What is the distribution among those who have the most power and those involved in decision-making processes?
Who has the most influence in the department?
Who tends to talk the most during lectures, meetings or coffee breaks? Are some people joking at the expense of others? Can everyone feel included and comfortable talking about themselves?
What can our talk and our view of these power relations above mean for the study and work environment?
Can you think of any other important questions about how certain perceptions of groups of people may influence the work and study environment?
Does everyone have the same opportunities for study choice / competence development?

Accessibility

Is the study or work environment accessible to everyone?
Does the layout of the workplace help students and employees with varying disabilities?
Are there, for example, height-adjustable tables, ramps, accessible digital tools, reading tools, a microphone and a hearing loop?
Does anyone appear to be excluded from the workplace community?

Social norms

How is the teaching permeated by an equal opportunities perspective?
What is the norm and what is the exception in the course literature?
Who is the ideal student / employee (based on age, family relationships, gender identity / expression, sexuality, ethnicity / skin color, religion, dis/ability and class)?
How does that ideal affect recruitment and opportunities for promotion / encouragement to apply for new calls? Does it affect how schedules are set and social activities are planned?
How do we talk about…
- religion, ethnicity, skin colour
- gender / sex (women / men / non-binary / cis / transgender people)
- sexuality
- disabilities/abilities (physical, mental and cognitive)
- age (young, middle-aged, older)
- class / socio-economic background
  … At our workplace / our program?