Research project Sweden’s Female-Forward Creative Industries

Games and comics are a large part of the Swedish culture. People are exposed to them as both creative and professional pursuits from an early age. Women are visible in most of Sweden’s creative industries, including leadership positions. While there is a higher percentage of women in the UK videogame industries, women in the Swedish videogame industries tend to be more visible and in leadership positions.

Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with over 25 people in Sweden about their experiences in the creative industries (including video games, boardgames, comics and (fan)zines), this project has uncovered several important findings: 

1. Zines and comics have acted as precursors to the creative industries culture and successful videogame industry in Sweden.
2. The videogame industry in Sweden has a retention problem.
3. The UK and Swedish creative industries can learn from the successes of each other.

This project was carried out March 7, 2022–April 3, 2022 in Stockholm. It was funded through May 4, 2022, and the writing up of reports and going to conferences is carried out through 2023. As part of the month-long research stay in Stockholm, Dr Hailey Austin created a travelogue zine that mapped the lived experience side of the project.

The results from the research project are reported in Sweden’s female-forward creative industries

This project was funded by the Scottish Funding Council’s Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH)