Who runs the movement? : a feminist empirical analysis of gender dimensions of the climate movement in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Rooted in the environmental movement, the climate movement in Sweden is on the rise and increasingly gaining support in its fight against climate change and its unequal impacts. If successful, the movement can play an important role in changing society. There is increased awareness and proof of the gendered effects of climate change, but awareness of the role of gender in the climate movement seems unexplored. Gender is a central feature of society, and even within movements like the climate movement that do not have a gender-oriented goal can be formed by it in its origins. Therefore, awareness of the gendered dimensions of the climate movement are important. To find out if and how the climate movement in Sweden is gendered, a mixed method study embedding quantitative data in qualitative data was conducted. The gender balance of the climate movement in Sweden terms of mobilising participants was found through visual data analysis of four cities in Sweden. Through semi-structured interviews with key figures of the two main climate movement organisations in Sweden, Fridays for Future (FFF) and Extinction Rebellion (XR), four potentially gendered areas of social movement inquiry were explored: 1) Emergence & Mobilisation, 2) Identity & Framing, 3) Tactics & Strategies, and 4) Organisational structure. On average 61% of the participants were women. Data analysis shows that in all four elements gendered structures are seen. These gendered patters are more evident in FFF than XR, mostly due to more diverse tactics in XR. An additional finding that characterises the climate movement in Sweden is the lack of young participants and diversity in ethnic, social, and economic background creating concern among key-figures. So who run the movement? This empirical research shows that women are on the forefront of the climate movement in Sweden and that this is enabled by underlying structures of the movement, making it less accessible to men. The climate movement in Sweden needs more awareness of how gender has played a role in shaping it, and how it can move towards a more equally balanced movement not only in terms of gender, but also race, class, and age. Groups of the population are missing from the equation that can contribute to a successful outcome of the social movement. Future research should focus on how this can be improved.